Cooling Coral Habitats by Convection

Abstract

The rise of ocean temperature and the acidification of seawater caused by global warming have dealt a near catastrophic blow to corals living in shallow waters. The massive coral deaths, which have proven to be an impact of fishing, tourism and the marine ecological system, will continuously deteriorate to a stage that impairs human environment, which makes it badly-needed to reach the resolutions. Based on previous studies on the effects of current mixing in the ocean, this project mainly utilizes convective heat transfer theories: Cooling surface water by ejecting cooling air, and circulating cooling bottom water by forced convection. It attempts to imitate and amplify natural oceanic activities to reduce the disturbance. Meanwhile, some substances are sprayed to promote the growth of phytoplankton for the acidity reduction of seawater. Additionally, setting specific constrains and preconditions according to coral habitats (continental shelf) may allow this design to be more suitable and effective. Afterwards, the project is simulated and tested on the software Workbench Fluent. Results show that the device is capable of refrigeration, and theoretically meets the design requirement of cooling more than 2°C. The temperature field of the convective process is also clearly depicted, which indicates that the cooling mechanism of the convective circulation can be technically realized.