EXERGY ANALYSIS OF ENERGY-CONVERSION DURING THE THERMAL INTERACTION BETWEEN HOT PARTICLES AND WATER

Energy analysis is applied to sudden thermal interaction between a mol ten metal (m(m)) and water (m(w)). The melt experiences cooling, solid ification and subcooling. The water is pressurized at constant volume. It is found that the exergetic efficiency is of the order of the mass ratio m(m)/m(w) when this ratio is much smaller than 1. This result i s relatively insensitive to the definition of the dead state and to wh ether the melt is initially superheated. The reported exergetic effici ency is an upper bound because of the irreversibility of the expansive processes that occur after the initial thermal interaction. We use th e model to account for irreversibility due to flow of the mixture thro ugh the cracks of the mixing vessel. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. Al l rights reserved.