Simulation of performance of intermediate fluid vaporizer under wide operation conditions

doi:10.1007/s11708-020-0681-4

Front. Energy

2020, Vol. 14

Issue (3) : 452-462 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-020-0681-4

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Simulation of performance of intermediate fluid vaporizer under wide operation conditions

Bojie WANG¹, Wen WANG¹(

), Chao QI¹, Yiwu KUANG¹, Jiawei XU²

¹. Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
². CNOOC Gas and Power Group, Beijing 100027, China

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Abstract

The intermediate fluid vaporizer (IFV) is a typical vaporizer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which in general consists of three shell-and-tube heat exchangers (an evaporator, a condenser, and a thermolator). LNG is heated by seawater and the intermediate fluid in these heat exchangers. A one-dimensional heat transfer model for IFV is established in this paper in order to investigate the influences of structure and operation parameters on the heat transfer performance. In the rated condition, it is suggested to reduce tube diameters appropriately to get a large total heat transfer coefficient and increase the tube number to ensure the sufficient heat transfer area. According to simulation results, although the IFV capacity is much larger than the simplified-IFV (SIFV) capacity, the mode of SIFV could be recommended in some low-load cases as well. In some cases at high loads exceeding the capacity of a single IFV, it is better to add an AAV or an SCV operating to the IFV than just to increase the mass flow rate of seawater in the IFV in LNG receiving terminals.

Keywords liquefied natural gas intermediate fluid vapo-rizer heat transfer performance numerical simulation extreme condition

Corresponding Author(s): Wen WANG

Online First Date: 03 July 2020 Issue Date: 14 September 2020

Cite this article:

Bojie WANG,Wen WANG,Chao QI, et al. Simulation of performance of intermediate fluid vaporizer under wide operation conditions[J]. Front. Energy, 2020, 14(3): 452-462.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/10.1007/s11708-020-0681-4
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/Y2020/V14/I3/452

Fig.1 Structure of an IFV.

Fig.2 Schematic diagram of IFV.

Fig.3 Properties of methane with temperature at three different pressures.

Heat exchanger	Zone	Correlations	Ref.
Evaporator	Inside tube	$Nu = 0.023 Re 0.8 Pr 0.3$	[¹⁷]
Evaporator	Outside tube	$h = 90 q 0.67 M − 0.5 P r n (− lg Pr) − 0.55$	[¹⁸]
Condenser	Inside tube	$Nu = 0.0156 Re 0.82 Pr 0.5 (ρ w ρ b) 0.3 (c ¯ p c pb) n$ $n = {0.4, for ? T b < T w < T pc ? and ? for ? 1.2 T pc < T b < T w 0.4 + 0.2 (T w T pc − 1), for ? T b < T pc < T w 0.4 + 0.2 (T w T pc − 1) [1 − 5 (T b T pc − 1)], for ? T pc < T b < 1.2 T pc ? and ? T b < T w$ $c ¯ p = ∫ T b T w d T / (T w − T b) = (h w − h b) / (T w − T b)$	[¹⁵]
Condenser	Outside tube	$h = 0.79 [G ρ l (ρ l − ρ g) λ 3 r μ l D (T po − T W)] 0.25 ? N eff − 1 / 6$	[¹⁶,¹⁹]
Thermolator	Inside tube	$Nu = 0.023 Re 0.8 Pr 0.3$	[¹⁷]
Thermolator	Outside tube	$Nu f = {1.04 Re f 0.4 Pr f 0.36 (Pr f / Pr w) 0.25, 1 < Re < 5 × 102 0.71 Re f 0.5 Pr f 0.36 (Pr f / Pr w) 0.25, 5 × 102 < Re < 103 0.35 (s 1 s 2) 0.2 Re f 0.6 Pr f 0.36 (Pr f / Pr w) 0.25, s 1 s 2 ≤ 2, 103 < Re < 2 × 105 0.4 Re f 0.6 Pr f 0 .36 (Pr f / Pr w) 0.25, s 1 s 2 > 2, 103 < Re < 2 × 105 ? 0.031 (s 1 s 2) 0.2 Re f 0.8 Pr f 0 .36 (Pr f / Pr w) 0.25, 2 × 105 < Re < 2 × 106$	[²⁰]

Tab.1 Heat transfer correlations of analysis model in heat exchangers

Tab.2 Structure parameters of IFV

Fig.4 Elements in the discrete model for exchangers.

Fig.5 Logical diagram of the calculation program.

Fig.6 The temperature profiles in exchangers with different grids.

Tab.3 Operation parameters of LNG

T_L1/K	P_L/MPa	$m ˙ L / (t·h – 1)$	T_S1/K	P_S/Mpa	$m ˙ S / (t·h – 1)$
113.15	6	180	281.15	0.2	8750

Tab.4 Parameters in typical operation status

Fig.7 The temperature profile in exchangers with different grids.

Fig.8 Influence of the tube diameter.

Fig.9 Average heat transfer coefficient at different tube diameters.

Fig.10 Influence of tube number.

Fig.11 Reynolds number along the channel at different tube numbers.

Fig.12 Heat transfer coefficient with different tube numbers.

Fig.13 Capacities of IFV and SIFV at different seawater inlet temperatures and mass flow rates.

Fig.14 Capacity of IFV variation with heat transfer area of thermolator.

Tab.5 Function of thermolator in operation

Fig.15 Temperature profile in an extreme condition.

Fig.16 Influence of seawater mass flow rate on outlet temperature of NG in a high-load condition.

T	Temperature/K
P	Pressure/MPa
$m ˙$	Mass flow rate/(kg·s^–1)
ρ	Density/(kg·m^–3)
c	Specific heat capacity/(kJ·kg^–1·K^–1)
λ	Thermal conductivity/(W·m^–1·K^–1)
μ	Dynamic viscosity/(Pa·s)
Re	Reynolds number
Pr	Prandtl number
Nu	Nusselt number
G	Gravitational acceleration/(m·s^–2)
$Q ˙$	Heat flux/W
H	Enthalpy/(J·kg^–1)
α	Heat transfer coefficient/(W·m^–2·K^–1)
A	Area/m²
q	Heat flux/(W·m^–2)
r	Heat of vaporization(J·kg^–1)
c_p	Heat capacity/(J·kg^–1·K)
c_pb	Average heat capacity/(J·kg^–1·K)
M	Mass flow rate/(kg·s^–1)
n	Constant
s₁	Horizontal distance between neighboring tubes/m
s₂	Vertical distance between neighboring tubes/m
D	Diameter/m
Subscript
L	LNG or NG
S	Seawater
po	Propane
th	Thermolator
ev	Evaporator
con	Condenser
in	Based on the inside tube
out	Based on the outside tube
w	Based on the tube wall
p	Constant pressure
l	Based on saturated liquid
g	Based on saturated vapor
f	Based on fluid
b	Average value
pc	Pseudo-critical value
eff	Effective

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