Thesis Information
Title: The Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Female Health at St. Benet Sherehog
Program: Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Dr. Todd Otanicar, Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering
Committee Members: Dr. Krishna Pakala, Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering; and Dr. Nirmila Kandadai, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Abstract
Solid particles have recently attracted substantial interest as a thermal transport medium in high-temperature energy storage and thermal energy conversion systems due to their ability to operate at high temperatures (up to 1000 °C). This is especially useful in the concentrating solar power (CSP) industry where solid particles are utilized as heat transfer media. Thermal conductivity of particles in CSP is critically important to the overall heat transfer that occurs within a heat exchanger. A cheap and effective avenue to increase the thermal conductivity of a particle distribution is by reducing its porosity by employing 2 differently sized particles. The thermal conductivity can be increased further by applying a load to the particles. At lower temperatures (20-300 °C), previous work has demonstrated a binary particle distribution has superior thermal conductivity. In this work, the thermal conductivities of HSP binary particle distributions under load are explored at ambient temperatures revealing enhanced thermal conductivity. Furthermore, high temperature (from 300-700 °C) analysis of HSP binary particle distributions are also explored with results being that monodispersed distributions yield higher thermal conductivities due to enhanced surface radiation in larger particles. A bimodal distribution increases packed-bed thermal conductivity only up to around ~375 °C at which monodisperse distributions with larger particles then yield higher thermal conductivities. HSP binary particle thermal conductivity results are compared to current models demonstrating inadequate characterization at high temperatures (>375 °C) due to the dominant heat transfer mechanism of radiation in larger particles at high temperature. A counter flow shell-and-plate moving packed-bed heat exchanger model is also explored with thermal conductivity models at working temperatures of 275-500 °C where experimental thermal conductivity data is more consistent with thermal conductivity models.–