Simulation on the Distribution of Solid Ice and Prediction of Ice Blockage for Ice Slurry in Horizontal Straight Tubes

Ice slurry has been widely used as a second refrigerant for its high energy density and pumpability in HVAC systems and other district cooling areas. However, the ice blockage becomes a serious problem for the application of ice slurry, which makes the thermal storage technology unavailable in many cases. In this paper, the distribution of the ice crystals is analyzed in the straight tubes to predict and avoid ice blockage based on numerical simulation by kinetic theory of granular. Additionally, it is proposed in this paper that two index parameters, the maximum concentration (namely, the volume fraction, so as the following ones) and the minimum concentration of ice particles, are proved useful to evaluate the risk of the ice blockage, not previously considered. Three distinguished flow patterns has been observed keeping accordance with previous research. The most remarkable conclusion is that optimum flow velocity exists just between these two critical velocities to prevent ice blockage to the most degree.