Numerical Study of Nozzle Design on Cadmium Quenching Process in Thermochemical Splitting of Water

Three-dimensional liquid-gas flow with condensation during cadmium quenching process for hydrogen production was numerically simulated in order to effectively guide the design of solar decomposer and vapor quencher. The mixture model was selected for modeling the multiphase flow, and the two-equation RNG k-ε model was used to model the turbulent flow and heat transfer. Numerical results including velocity, temperature, pressure, and mole fraction distributions were obtained for different nozzle designs. Numerical results showed that flow is relatively low in the decomposer and close to the bottom and the top inlets. The maximum velocity develops in the region near the entrance of the quenching nozzle as the nozzle angle is small. As the nozzle angle is large, the maximum velocity appears in the exit tube. Temperature, pressure and cadmium vapor distributions are also directly affected by the nozzle angle