Experimental and computational study on clathrate hydrate of tetrahydrofuran formation on a subcooled cylinder

• Experimental investigation on hydrate formation in cylindrical coordinates.
• Accurate prediction of hydrate formation and growth with no experimental correlations.
• Simplifying a moving boundary phase change problem to a single phase transient heat transfer problem.

In the present work, formation of tetrahydrofuran (THF) hydrate on a subcooled cylinder is experimentally investigated. Then it is modeled using a latent-heat based, heat transfer with phase change model. Formation and growth of a THF hydrate layer from a liquid solution having the same composition as the hydrate have been observed in a one-dimensional cylindrical heat-transfer system. Our model simplifies equations and corresponding solutions for a moving boundary phase change problem using two simple yet accurate assumptions. This model successfully changes a “moving boundary phase change” problem to a “simple single phase transient heat transfer” problem. This model describes the hydrate formation process for different boundary and initial conditions. The effects of many operating conditions like subcooling temperature on hydrate formation rate are evaluated.