Abstract
Supersonic ejectors are an economically feasible and environmentally friendly technology. Shock wave structures significantly affect the ejector performance. In the present work, the first shock wave structures in a supersonic ejector were analyzed with experimental and numerical methods. The experimental results by the Schlieren method were used to verify the accuracy of the numerical simulation results. Then the influence of the inlet pressure on the first shock wave structures inside the ejector was analyzed under critical operating conditions. The numerical simulation results showed that the dimensionless length and height of the first shock wave inside the ejector increase with the increase of the primary pressure and decrease with the increase of the secondary pressure. Meanwhile, the relationship between the performance of the ejector and the shock structures was established, the entrainment ratio is positively correlated with the first shock wave aspect ratio and has a good linear relationship. The results may be beneficial to reveal the ejector’s working mechanism and design high performance ejectors in the future.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors
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Notes on contributors
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Weixiong Chen
Weixiong Chen is a Professor of State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China. He received his Ph.D. from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2013. His area of interest is the mixing mechanism inside the ejector, two-phase flow (water and natural gas) inside the supersonic ejector, steam/gas-water two-phase flow, emulation and optimization of thermal systems.
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Yuyan Hou
Yuyan Hou is a master student of State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University. His present work is to investigate the performance of ejectors based on computational fluid dynamics simulation. He is interested in the application of supersonic ejector.
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Jiantao Zheng
Jiantao Zheng is a Senior Engineer of Huaneng Clean Energy Research Institude. He received his Ph.D. from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2016. His research interests include supersonic ejector, steam/gas-water two-phase flow, emulation and optimization of thermal system, and new energy power generation technology.
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Daotong Chong
Daotong Chong is a Professor of State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University. He received his Ph.D. in Power Engineering and Engineering Thermophysics from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 2008. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Tokyo from Apr. 2009 to Mar. 2010 and a visiting scholar at Purdue University from Aug. 7 to Sep. 2017. His research interests include thermal power system, two-phase flow, and enhanced heat transfer. He has published more than 80 journal papers. He has been invited to give keynote lectures and seminars at international conferences and universities. He is a member of Editorial Board of International Journal of Energy and Power Engineering, and member of Editorial Board of International Journal of Advanced Nuclear Reactor Design and Technology.
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Junjie Yan
Junjie Yan is a Professor of State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University. He received his Ph.D. from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 1998. He is a member of multiphase flow committee of Chinese society of engineering thermophysics. His research interests include enhanced heat transfer, emulation and optimization of thermal system, steam-water two-phase flow, phase change heat transfer, cogeneration of cooling, heating and power, and process control.