COVID-19 and household energy implications: what are the main impacts on energy use?

Measurements of the local heat transfer distribution on smooth and roughened surfaces under an array of angled impinging jets are presented. The test rig is designed to simulate impingement with crossflow in one direction. Jet angle is varied between 30, 60, and 90 deg as measured from the target surface, which is either smooth or randomly roughened. Liquid crystal video thermography is used to capture surface temperature data at five different jet Reynolds numbers ranging between 15,000 and 35,000. The effect of jet angle, Reynolds number, gap, and surface roughness on heat transfer and pressure loss is determined along with the various interactions among these parameters.

Experimental investigation of local heat transfer distribution on smooth and roughened surfaces under an array of angled impinging jets

Performance enhancement of a conventional multi-effect desalination (MED) system by heat pump cycles

Process simulation and techno‐economic assessment of a zero liquid discharge/multi‐effect desalination/thermal vapor compression (ZLD/MED/TVC) system

A retrospective analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions on energy consumption at a disaggregated level.

The present paper reports the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the electricity peak load and power generation in the State of Kuwait during the partial and full curfews imposed in March, April and May 2020 using historic data measured data and the predictions provided by a statistical genetic algorithm model. A quantitative assessment is made of the economic and environmental impacts caused by partial and full lockdowns. Comparison of measured peak demand for 2019 and 2020 with predicted peak demand for 2020 has: (i) enabled an accurate evaluation of residential energy consumption in the state of Kuwait at nearly 18 MWh yearly the highest energy consumption per capita in the world, (ii) shown that the imposition of the curfews to reduce the spread of COVID-19 caused a fall in the demand for electrical power of 17.6% compared with the expected demand and (iii) quantified the reduction in CO2, NOx and CO pollutant emissions produced by power plants due to less fuel being consumed. A mathematical model has been developed to predict the peak electric load in the national grid according to climatic data supplied by the Meteorological Department of Civil Aviation of Kuwait and National Control Center (NCC).

Energy Demand in the State of Kuwait During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Technical, Economic, and Environmental Perspectives

Desalination is the sole proven technique that can provide the necessary fresh water in arid and semi-arid countries in sufficient quantities and meet the modern needs of a growing world population. Multi effect desalination with thermal vapour compression (MED-TVC) is one of most common applications of thermal desalination technologies. The present paper presents a comprehensive thermodynamic model of a 24 million litres per day thermal desalination plant, using specialised software packages. The proposed model was validated against a real data set for a large-scale desalination plant, and showed good agreement. The performance of the MED-TVC unit was investigated using different loads, entrained vapour, seawater temperature, salinity and number of effects in two configurations. The first configuration was the MED-TVC unit without preheating system, and the second integrated the MED-TVC unit with a preheating system. The study confirmed that the thermo-compressor and its effects are the main sources of exergy destruction in these desalination plants, at about 40% and 35% respectively. The desalination plant performance with preheating mode performs well due to high feed water temperature leading to the production of more distillate water. The seawater salinity was proportional to the fuel exergy and minimum separation work. High seawater salinity results in high exergy efficiency, which is not the case with membrane technology. The plant performance of the proposed system was enhanced by using a large number of effects due to greater utilisation of energy input and higher generation level. From an economic perspective, both indicators show that using a preheating system is more economically attractive.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/10/3/305/pdf

Energetic, Exergetic, and Economic Analysis of MED-TVC Water Desalination Plant with and without Preheating

The jet impingement technique is an effective method to achieve a high heat transfer rate and is widely used in industry. Enhancing the heat transfer rate even minimally will improve the performance of many engineering systems and applications. In this numerical study, the convective heat transfer process between orthogonal air jet impingement on a smooth, horizontal surface and a roughened uniformly heated flat plate is studied. The roughness element takes the form of a circular rib of square cross-section positioned at different radii around the stagnation point. At each location, the effect of the roughness element on heat transfer rate was simulated for six different heights and the optimum rib location and rib dimension determined. The average Nusselt number has been evaluated within and beyond the stagnation region to better quantify the heat transfer advantages of ribbed surfaces over smooth surfaces. The results showed both flow and heat transfer features vary significantly with rib dimension and location on the heated surface. This variation in the streamwise direction included both augmentation and decrease in heat transfer rate when compared to the baseline no-rib case. The enhancement in normalized averaged Nusselt number obtained by placing the rib at the most optimum radial location R/D = 2 was 15.6% compared to the baseline case. It was also found that the maximum average Nusselt number for each location was achieved when the rib height was close to the corresponding boundary layer thickness of the smooth surface at the same rib position.

https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/6/1550/pdf

Flow Structure and Heat Transfer of Jet Impingement on a Rib-Roughened Flat Plate

Numerical investigation on heat transfer performance and flow characteristics in a roughened vortex chamber

The results of an experimental study to evaluate the characteristics of R-407C thermofluid during condensation in a helically coiled copper tube heat exchanger are presented. The effects of saturation temperature (Tsat), and mass and heat fluxes of refrigerant R-407C on thermal performance and pressure drop were determined. The relationship between the refrigerant wall subcooling and heat transfer coefficients was also investigated. This paper reports the effect of the temperature of the water used as cooling medium on the heat transfer rate of condensing R-407C. The study was conducted with mass flux of R-407C in the range of 100–450 kg/m2s, mass flux of the coolant water in the range of 500–5000 kg/m2s and Tsat of 31 °C, 35 °C, and 39 °C. Compared with a straight smooth tube, the use of the helical coiled (helicoidal) tube increased the condensation rate with a corresponding pressure drop that depended on the value of Tsat of the refrigerant and temperature of the coolant.

/pdf/condensation-heat-transfer-of-r-407c-in-helical-coiled-tube-2psalsrkfk.pdf

Hamad M. Alhajeri

Papers

Energy Demand in the State of Kuwait During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Technical, Economic, and Environmental Perspectives

Energetic, Exergetic, and Economic Analysis of MED-TVC Water Desalination Plant with and without Preheating

Flow Structure and Heat Transfer of Jet Impingement on a Rib-Roughened Flat Plate

Numerical investigation on heat transfer performance and flow characteristics in a roughened vortex chamber

Condensation Heat Transfer of R-407C in Helical Coiled Tube Heat Exchanger