| AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Vacuum Technology | Monday Sessions |
| Session VT-MoA |
| Session: | Gas Dynamics, Simulation and Partial Pressure Analysis |
| Presenter: | Bo Zhang, New Jersey Institute of Technology |
| Authors: | B. Zhang, New Jersey Institute of Technology G. Guo, New Jersey Institute of Technology C. Zhu, New Jersey Institute of Technology Z. Ji, New Jersey Institute of Technology |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
A near-vacuum state in an enclosed chamber can be achieved by vapor condensation on a cooling surface. This near-vacuum chamber can function as a vacuum sink for a sustained operation of application that requires depressurization in an open flow environment. To realize such a sustained operation of gas extraction, a complete cycle of regenerating vacuum in the chamber may consist of multiple stages, including a vapor filling process, the vacuum generation by cooling-controlled condensation, a process of gas extraction from depressurization-required application, and a process of flushing non-condensable gas out of the condensation chamber. A dynamic process model is established to describe the thermodynamic characteristics of the entire cycle. The transient and non-equilibrium characteristics in the condensation-induced vacuum generating process is reasonably captured by our computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model, with modified boundary conditions accounting for the complicated coupling mechanisms of heat and mass transfer during the condensation. The CFD simulations for the entire processes are obtained using FLUENT with user-defined functions. In addition, a pseudo-equilibrium-based parametric model is further developed to evaluate various parametric effects for the system design and optimized operation. The CFD simulation results and parametric modeling predictions are partially validated through our experimental measurements.