Experimental and simulation investigation of heat and mass transfer in a calcium carbide heat collection system

Abstract

This paper proposes a waste heat recovery system for calcium carbide. The research employs Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and experiments to investigate the heat transfer and flow characteristics of the heat collection system. The research investigates the effects of the distance between the heat collector the calcium carbide, inlet velocity and inlet temperature on operating characteristics and heat transfer performance of the heat collection system. The results illustrate that the maximum error between the simulation and experiment is 1.18%. Shortening the distance between the heat collector and the surface of the calcium carbide can effectively improve the outlet temperature and heat transfer efficiency. Increasing the flow rate can increase the heat transfer efficiency of the heat collection system, but decrease the exergy efficiency of the heat collection system. Increasing the inlet temperature can increase the transient efficiency and thermal efficiency of the heat collection system, but is not conducive to improving the exergy efficiency of the heat collection system. The deflector can make the flow and heat transfer inside the heat collector more uniform. The heat collector can slow down the drop in the temperature of the calcium carbide. So, more heat can be recovered by the heat collector. The waste heat recovery system proposed in this paper offers a new approach to calcium carbide waste heat recovery and a new engineering example.