Numerical simulation of coupled fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in a submerged combustion vaporizer

Submerged combustion vaporizer (SCV) has been widely employed in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) receiving terminals as the main peaking-shaving facility. In the current work, numerical simulation was carried out to study the intrinsic fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics inside the SCV. After the verification of the numerical model and method with the experimental data, detailed results about flow field and temperature field were presented to have an understanding of the principle of shell-side heat transfer enhancement. The distributions of local LNG temperature, wall temperature, water bath temperature and heat transfer coefficient along the tube length were also revealed. Moreover, the influences of main operating parameters such as flue gas temperature, inlet LNG velocity, inlet LNG pressure, static water height and flue gas flux on the system performance were systematically investigated. Finally, based on current simulation results, two empirical correlations were proposed to predict the coupled heat transfer performance of SCV. The simulated results could provide some insight into the design and optimization of SCV.