CFD Simulations on Temperature Control for an Organic Glass Sphere with High-Heat-Flux Sources

Abstract

A sphere-shaped experimental setup is assembled by organic glass via mass polymerization in a layer-by-layer manner from top (north pole) to bottom (south pole) in a cylindrical experimental hall. For each layer, the thermal bonding joints of both inner and outer surfaces need to be annealed by a heating belt with heat flux density of approximately 4200 W/m2. Due to the requirements of the experiment, the temperature should be controlled within the range of 21 ± 1 °C to avoid physical deformation. In this paper, rapid release and diffuse process of high heat (0–300 s) is simulated using transient CFD method and the applicability of two ventilation schemes, e.g., general ventilation and push–pull ventilation, is investigated. The temperature distributions of all the areas above the layer under polymerization and heat exhaust efficiency are used to evaluate the effects of different ventilation schemes on heat dilution. The results show that, first, the high heat release and diffusion results in rapid buoyancy and general ventilation alone cannot maintain temperature increment. Second, the push–pull ventilation can effectively minimize the buoyancy caused by the heating sources and maintain thermal environment and increase the heat exhaust efficiency.