Thermofluids Laboratory

Thermofluids Laboratory

This is a 300 m² laboratory in the Mechanical Engineering Department and the CUNY Energy Institute. It is a wet laboratory with two fume hoods and full utilities such as compressed air, three-phase 220 Volt AC, steam boiler, and 20-m of lab benches and storage cabinets. It is located on the second floor of Steinman Hall in Room 201A and has the following test facilities and instruments.

1. A gas-liquid two-phase flow loop with and without a rod bundle for measuring void fraction using a gamma densitometer.
2. A heat transfer flow loop for determining the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of Phase Change Material nano-emulsions. This flow loop is equipped with a gear pump, flow meter, heat exchanger, ohmically heated test section, PC-based data acquisition system and a 14 kW DC power supply. 
3. Flow Boiling Test Facility is available to investigate flow boiling of water and refrigerants at high pressures up to 10 bar. Bubble nucleation and departure characteristics can be studied by using a high-speed video camera.
4. Microfluidics Test Facility is used to investigate gas-liquid two-phase flow in microchannels with diameters between 50 and 500 mm. Flow visualization can be performed using a high-speed video camera, and liquid film thickness can be measured using two Keyence laser displacement sensors.
5. Natural Circulation Test Facility is used to investigate flow and convection heat transfer characteristics during natural circulation of helium and nitrogen at high pressures up to 70 bar (1,000 psi) and high temperatures up to 600 ^oC.
6. Reactor Cavity Gas Mixing Test Facility is used to investigate helium-air mixing in closed chambers that simulate reactor cavities of High Temperature Gas Reactors. Oxygen sensors and temperature sensors are installed in five interconnected chambers to obtain the oxygen concentration and gas-mixture temperature distribution data.
7. Bioreactor test facility is available to investigate microbubble generation and flow behavior in downward flow.

A High-Pressure Helium Flow Test Facility in Steinman Hall Room C-12 is available for investigating forced convection heat transfer of helium at high pressures (up to 70 bar) and high temperatures (up to 600 ^oC). This facility incorporates a graphite test section simulating a flow channel in a High Temperature Gas Reactor, and is equipped with a gas compressor and gas recycling system for continuous circulation of helium gas. Two graphite test sections are available and can be connected in parallel for investigating natural circulation of helium and nitrogen.

Equipment:

• Photron Fastcam Imagers: Capable of 10,000 FPS at 200 px by 200 px
• A 532 nm laser for PIV and PTV measurements using DaVis 8.2.1 software
• Infrared Camera: General use imager, capable of 80 FPS at 640 px by 480 px
• A 100 keV X-ray source (Oxford Instruments) and an X-ray imager (Hamamatsu Photonics X-Cube) are available for measuring the X-ray attenuation coefficient of ionic liquids.
• A gamma densitometer consisting of gamma sources, NaI detectors and multichannel analyzer is available for measuring void fraction in gas-liquid flows and solids fraction in solid-liquid two-phase flow
• A Taylor-Couette cell for investigating rotating flows of Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Fluids
• Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) unit and a test section equipped with electrodes
• Dantec Hot Wire Anemometry system with a High Temperature X-probe