Project Description: |
Working with Ahmed Sidi-Yeklef of Brookhaven National Laboratories, we will contribute to the RHIC Refrigeration System Power Reduction and Upgrade Phase III. Cryogenic systems inevitably include regions of two-phase liquid-gas flows. Heat flux to these regions can lead to unstable or oscillating behavior. System design seeks to conservatively avoid the impact of two-phase flows on system operation. However overall efficiency decreases and power consumption increases as a result. The ability to accurately model two-phase flow and transient behavior in large-scale cryogenic systems affords the potential of improved efficiency and reduced operating expense. This analysis combines fundamental principles of fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and thermodynamics with numerical analysis and computer simulation and is accessible to undergraduate students. |
