Numerical Investigation of Flow and Heat Transfer of Ice Slurry Based on Population Balance Model

As a solid-liquid two-phase fluid, ice slurry is widely used in cold storage and transport systems due to its high energy storage density, good fluidity and heat transfer performance. Most of the studies on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of ice slurry are based on uniform particle diameter. In the present study, the flow and heat transfer characteristics of ice slurry are numerically investigated in horizontal circular pipes based on the variation of particle diameter through the Euler-Euler two-phase flow model with population balance model (PBM), which considers the interaction between the solid and liquid phases as well as the aggregation, breakage and melting of particles. The results show that the ice particle diameter increases with the increase of solid volume fraction and flow rate. The particle diameter changes from 125 μm to 139 μm at solid volume fraction of 10% and inlet velocity of 1.0 m/s under the isothermal flow condition. Whereas the particle diameter gradually decreases from the initial diameter to completely melting at wall heat flux of 50 kW/m2. Increasing the heat flux leads to a faster decrease of particle diameter and the particle diameter distribution is different from that under the isothermal flow condition. © 2019, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press. All right reserved.