Bionic Design and Finite Element Analysis of Elbow in Ice Transportation Cooling System

With the increase in mining depth, mine heat harm has appeared to be more prominent. The mine heat harm could be resolved or reduced by ice refrigeration. Thus, ice transportation through pipeline becomes a critical problem; typically flow resistance occurs in the elbow. In the present study, according to the analysis of the surface morphology of fish scale, a biomimetic functional surface structure for the interior wall of elbow is designed. Based on the theory of liquid-solid two phase flow, a CFD numerical simulation of ice-water mixture flowing through the elbow is carried out using finite element method. Conventional experiments of pressure drop and flow resistance for both bionic and common elbows are conducted to test the effect of the bionic elbow on flow resistance reduction. It is found that with the increase in the ice mass fraction in the ice-water mixture, the effect of bionic elbow on resistance reduction becomes more obvious.