Transient Natural Convection Heat Transfer to CO2 in the Supercritical Region

Abstract

Present research paper investigates the transient laminar free convective supercritical carbon dioxide flow past a semi-infinite vertical cylinder using numerical methods. Two new thermodynamic models for the supercritical fluid (SCF) flow are considered. Based on these models, for supercritical carbon dioxide, two new equations for thermal expansion coefficient are obtained on the basis of Redlich–Kwong equation of state (RK-EOS) and Van der Waals equation of state (VW-EOS). Based on the calculated values of thermal expansion coefficient, it is shown that not only RK-EOS is closer to experimental values but also gives greater accuracy when compared to VW-EOS validating RK-EOS as suitable model for predicting natural convective properties of carbon dioxide under supercritical condition. The governing equations of SCF flow are solved numerically using Crank–Nicolson implicit finite difference scheme. Numerical simulations are performed for carbon dioxide in the region of its critical point. Results in subcritical, supercritical, and near-critical regions are shown graphically and discussed for different physical parameters. From the obtained numerical results, it is clear that the steady-state time increases for the increasing values of reduced temperature and reduced pressure for carbon dioxide in supercritical region.