Our new paper on the packing characteristics of the mono-sized pebbles packing in rectangular container have been accepted by Energies, Now it’s available online.
Abstract: The packing characteristics of a pebble bed are essential to understand the heat and mass transfer processes actually occurring in a granular system. Therefore, the packing characteristics of rec-tangular prismatic pebble beds that are randomly packed with mono-sized pebbles are analyzed. In terms of the average and local packing fraction distribution, coordination number and radial distribution function, the impacts of the rectangular tube aspect ratio and cross-sectional area on the packing properties of pebble beds are explored in depth. The findings indicate that the packing structures of the rectangular pebble bed exhibits the obvious fixed-wall effects. The average packing fraction and average coordination number gradually decline as the rectangular tube aspect ratio rises. Close to the fixed wall, a noticeable wall effect can be seen in the distributions of the axial and local packing fractions as well as the pebble center distribution. The wall effect has an increasing impact on the axial and local packing fraction distributions in rectangular tubes with increasing aspect ratios. Additionally, the average packing fraction and the average coor-dination number also increase as the cross-sectional area increases, indicating a gradually weakening of the wall effect as the cross-sectional area increases. Furthermore, the cross-sectional area and aspect ratio of the rectangular tube have an impact on the RDF values of the rectangular pebble bed but no impact on the RDF features. The finding in this paper will be helpful in de-signing and optimizing pebble beds in breeding blanket of fusion reactor.
Baoping Gong*, Hao Cheng, Juemin Yan, Long Wang, Yongjin Feng, Xiaoyu Wang, Effects of the aspect ratio and cross-sectional area of rectangular tube on packing characteristics of mono-sized pebble beds, Energies, 2023, 16(1), 570.[ PDF, DOI, Link ]
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