Velocity Distribution Characteristics and Parametric Sensitivity Analysis of Liquid Nitrogen Jet

Article history: Received: 09.06.2015. Received in revised form: 01.10.2015. Accepted: 08.10.2015. Liquid nitrogen is expected to be used as a jet medium in petroleum engineering because of its cryogenic and non-polluting characteristics. To identify the velocity distribution characteristics of liquid nitrogen jet, a computational fluid dynamics model was built by coupling the equations for nitrogen properties. The velocity and pressure distributions of liquid nitrogen jet were analyzed by comparing them with water jet ones. Meanwhile, the influences of relevant parameters on the centerline velocity distributions of liquid nitrogen jet were researched as well. The simulation results showed that the liquid nitrogen jet not only displayed higher velocity but also presented fewer kinetic energy losses than the water jet during jetting process. The nozzle outlet velocity of liquid nitrogen jet was increased by increasing the nozzle pressure drop, and was slightly influenced by confining pressure and nozzle diameter. In the external space of the nozzle, the attenuation amplitude of centerline velocity was decreased with the growth of nozzle diameter, and was slightly influenced by nozzle pressure drop and confining pressure. This study is expected to provide a theoretical guide for parametric design of liquid nitrogen jet.