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Dynamic Heat Transfer Analysis of Liquefied Natural Gas Ambient Air

Vaporizer under Frost Conditions

Article  in  Applied Thermal Engineering · September 2016

DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.09.016

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 Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 999–1006

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Dynamic heat transfer analysis of liquefied natural gas ambient air

vaporizer under frost conditions
Shanshan Liu a, Wenling Jiao a,⇑, Lemei Ren a, Haichao Wang b,c, Ping Zhang d
a
School of Municipal & Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China
b
Institute of Building Environment and Facility Engineering, Faculty of Infrastructure Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
c
Department of Energy Technology, Aalto University School of Engineering, P.O. Box 14100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
d
No. 52 Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, Hangzhou 310012, China

h i g h l i g h t s

A coupled dynamic heat transfer model for the AAV is established.

The peak thermal resistance temperature should be avoided for the operation.

Frost formation changes the coupled heat transfer coefficient of the AAV.

The effective operation time gets shorter as the air temperature gets lower.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Liquefied natural gas (LNG) ambient air vaporizer (AAV) is a cryogenic heat exchanger, which utilizes
Received 30 April 2016 ambient air to evaporate LNG in gas terminal stations. The moist air around the AAV fin tube may freeze
Revised 2 August 2016 during the long-time operation, leading to a worse heat transfer performance. Study on the dynamic heat
Accepted 4 September 2016
transfer performance of AAV is required for its optimal design and operation. This paper presents a cou-
Available online 7 September 2016
pled dynamic heat transfer model, which incorporates the cryogenic frost formation and flow boiling heat
transfer of LNG. The model was demonstrated in the heat transfer analysis of a typical star-fin type AAV.
Keywords:
The model results were validated by the test data of a commercial HAI848F type AAV. The dynamic heat
Liquefied natural gas (LNG)
Ambient air vaporizer (AAV)
transfer performance of AAV under frost conditions was also studied.
Dynamic Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Heat transfer
Frost formation

1. Introduction
Natural gas can be liquefied at approximately 112 K under
atmospheric pressure, but this can also happen by cooling down
the natural gas with very high pressure in order to produce lique-
fied natural gas (LNG). Liquefaction of natural gas makes the trans-
portation much easier because it greatly reduces the volume of
natural gas by 600 times. When LNG transportation is over, LNG
vaporizers, e.g. ambient air vaporizers (AAV) are designed for the
vaporization of LNG in gas terminal stations.
AAV is widely used in small and medium gas terminal stations
due to the low operation cost and high environmental sustainabil-
ity. AAV has a group of parallel fin tubes, and the most common
AAV fin tube is with 8 fins or 12 fins in a group. AAV utilizes ambi-
ent air to heat the cryogenic LNG inside the fin tube. Generally,
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: wljiao@163.com (W. Jiao).
LNG flows into the bottom of the fin tube, and natural gas flows
out of the fin tube. The outlet temperature of natural gas should
follow the requirement of the natural gas pipeline.
The heat transfer performance of AAV is easily affected by the
atmospheric conditions and operation parameters, e.g. tempera-
ture and humidity of the ambient air. The temperature difference
between ambient air and LNG in the tube is the driving force of
heat transfer. Therefore, the ambient air temperature can affect
the heat transfer coefficient, especially in cold areas, where the
outlet temperature of the natural gas usually cannot satisfy the
requirement of the natural gas pipelines. This means that the cli-
mate conditions of different areas should be considered to design
the AAV [1]. On the other hand, the cryogenic LNG may cause frost
formation on the surface of the AAV fin tube. Frost layer makes the
AAV ineffective because of the worse heat transfer coefficient, and
thus a second AAV has to be employed to let the first AAV defrost.
This is why the operation time for a certain type of AAV needs to be
restricted. Otherwise, it will result in operating failures [2].

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.09.016
1359-4311/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1000 S. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 999–1006
Nomenclature
Mf mass per square meter, kg/m2
M molecular weight, g/mol
s time, s
hm interfacial mass transfer coefficient, m/s
q density, kg/m3
df thickness of the frost, m
h heat transfer coefficient, W/(m2 K)
cp;a specific heat of air at constant pressure, J/(kg K)
Le Lewis number
kf thermal conductivity of the frost, W/(m K)
T temperature, K
I sv latent heat of sublimation of water vapor, kJ/kg
mf mass flux of the water vapor through the frost surface,
kg/(m2 s)
u relative humidity of the air, %
v vapor quality
Pr l Prandtl number of the liquid phase
G mass flux, kg/(m2 s)
Di inner diameter, m
ll viscosity of the liquid phase, Pa s
Heat transfer performance of AAV should be studied in order to
optimize the design and operation. For example, Jeong and Lee [3]
estimated the convective heat transfer of the AAV fins using com-
putational fluid dynamics (CFD) with the assumption that the aver-
age outer surface temperature of the AAV fin tube was the same as
the inlet temperature of LNG. The optimal design of AAV fin
geometries was numerically studied by analyzing the thickness
of frost deposit on AAV fins [4]. Some researches focused on the
frost formation on the AAV fin tube without considering the LNG
flow boiling. Gavelli [5] presented a CFD-based modeling approach
to predict the formation and dispersion of a fog cloud due to AAV
operation. The effects of wind speed on the behavior of the fog
cloud around AAV unit was investigated. Lee et al. [6] built a math-
ematical model to investigate the frost growth on the cold surface
under the assumption that the diffusion of the water vapor is con-
cerned with concentration. Chen et al. [7] conducted an experi-
ment to find out the influencing factors of the frost formation on
AAV, and analyzed the change law of the frost layer parameters.
Researches on the flow boiling of refrigerant, liquid nitrogen and
water have achieved much progress [8–10], but only a few studies
focus on the LNG flow boiling. Recently, an experimental apparatus
was set up by Shi [11] to study the upward flow boiling heat trans-
fer characteristics of LNG in a vertical smooth tube. Zou et al. [12]
recommended to use correlation to predict the flow boiling heat
transfer of LNG in a vertical smooth tube.
We concluded that previous studies have mainly focused on the
steady-state heat transfer at only one side of the AAV fin tube,
either the LNG flow boiling [11,12] or the frost formation of the
moist air [5–7]. Few studies have reported the mutual influence
of the heat transfer between LNG and ambient air, and the effect
of the operation time on the heat transfer performance of AAV.
Besides, frost formation on the cryogenic surface is quite different
with the cold surface that has been mainly studied before.
The main purpose of this paper is to investigate how the heat
transfer performance of AAV changes with the operation time. This
paper developed a coupled dynamic heat transfer model consider-
ing the cryogenic frost formation and the LNG flow boiling at the
same time, and demonstrated it in a typical star-fin type AAV,
which is used in many gas terminal stations. The model was
numerically solved and the results were validated by the test data
of a commercial AAV.
Pc reduced pressure, Pa
P pressure, Pa
q heat flux, W/m2
DT bp temperature glide, K
DT id ideal temperature difference, K
Y1 vapor mole fraction of the more volatile component
X1 liquid mole fraction of the more volatile component
Subscripts
v vapor phase
l liquid phase
a air
f frost
ice ice on the wall
sur frost surface
w wall
fl fluid
2. Mathematical model
During the process of LNG vaporization in the AAV, heat is
transferred from the air to LNG due to the huge temperature differ-
ence. Cryogenic LNG flows into the AAV fin tube and flows out in
the form of natural gas (NG) after absorbing enough heat from
the air. Meanwhile, the fin tube and the ambient air are cooled
down, leading to cryogenic frost formation as the operation time
lasts. Fig. 1 shows the simplified heat transfer schematic diagram
of the AAV fin tube.
The heat transfer process in AAV is very complex, some assump-
tions were made to simplify the model: the thermophysical param-
eters of the frost are uniform; the frost growth is one dimensional;
the moist air on the cryogenic frost layer surface is saturated; the
blockage effect of the frost layer on the air natural convection is
negligible; the heat transfer by radiation is negligible.
This paper proposes a coupled heat transfer model that consid-
ers the cryogenic frost formation and the LNG flow boiling at the
same time. The fluid-solid coupling can be realized by keeping
the continuity of the temperature and heat flux at the fluid-solid
interface. The coupled heat transfer coefficient K of an AAV tube is:
1
K¼ ð1Þ
1=hLNG þ Rw þ Rf þ 1=hair
where hLNG is the convective heat transfer coefficient of LNG flow
boiling; Rw is the thermal resistance of AAV fin tube; Rf is the ther-
mal resistance of the frost layer; and hair is the natural convective
coefficient of the air around the fin tube. Rw and hair can be easily
calculated based on the geometric parameters of the AAV fin tube
and the similarity criterion relations for the natural convection on
the vertical plate. This paper focuses on the investigation of Rf
and hLNG.
2.1. Frost formation on the cryogenic surface
The frost formation depends on the temperature and the partial
pressure of the water vapor. There are two basic types of frost for-
mation according to Fig. 2. The first type is that the vapor con-
denses into water drops firstly and then freezes into frost crystal;
and the second type is that the vapor freezes into frost crystal
directly. The boundary of the frost formation type is the partial
 S. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 999–1006 1001

model is similar with the frost formation on the cold surface. How-
ever, the definite solution condition of the conservation equations
is quite different. The empirical correlations of the density and
thermal conductivity of frost layer on the cryogenic surface were
adopted to solve the equations.
According to the convective mass transfer, the water molecule
passes from the air into the frost layer via the gas-solid interface.
The mass growth of the frost layer equals to the convective mass
transfer rate.
dM f
¼ hm ðqv ;a  qv ;f Þ ð2Þ
ds

Mf ¼ df qf ð2aÞ

where Mf represents the mass of the frost layer per square meter,
kg/m2; qf is the density of the frost layer, kg/m3; hm is the mass
transfer coefficient, which was obtained by the Chilton-Colburn
analogy [13].
hf
hm ¼ 2
ð2bÞ
qa cp;a Le3
where Le is the Lewis number, the ratio of the mass and diffusion
coefficient.
Thus, the mass conservation equation can be written as follows:
dðdf qf Þ
¼ hm ðqv ;a  qv ;f Þ ð3Þ
ds
The total heat transfer from the ambient air to the frost layer
consists of the sensible heat and the latent heat. The energy con-
servation equation can be written as follows:
T sur  T w
kf ¼ ha ðT a  T sur Þ þ Isv mf ð4Þ
Fig. 1. The simplified heat transfer schematic diagram of AAV. df
In order to meet the definite solution condition of the mass and
energy conservation equations, the empirical correlations of the
density and thermal conductivity of frost formation on the cryo-
genic surface were introduced [14]. The frost layer is regarded as
a porous media composed of air and ice, so the thermal parameters
of the frost layer are affected by the structure.
1 f 1f
¼ þ ð5Þ
kf kmin kmax
where kmin and kmax is the minimum and maximum thermal con-
ductivity of the frost layer, and f is the density index of the frost
layer.
kmax ¼ ð1  wÞkice þ wka ð5aÞ

1 w
¼ ð1  wÞkice þ ð5bÞ
kmin ka

f ¼ 0:42ð0:1 þ 0:995qf Þ ð5cÞ

Fig. 2. The phase diagram of water. where w is the frost porosity, which can be calculated based on Eq.
(5d); kice is the thermal conductivity of the ice, and ka is the thermal
conductivity of the air; qf is the frost density and can be calculated
pressure of the water vapor. Although the temperature of the cryo- based on Eq. (5e).
genic surface of the AAV fin tube is much lower than the triple
point of water, the frost crystal may not form if the partial pressure w ¼ 1  0:71 exp ½0:228ðT sur  273:15Þ ð5dÞ
of water vapor was not in the proper range. Furthermore, the con-
tinuous accumulation of the frost crystal is essential to form the qf ¼ ð1  wÞqice þ wqa ð5eÞ
frost layer. The concentration gradient of the water vapor between
the ambient air and the moist air around the AAV fin tubes is the
2.2. LNG flow boiling inside the vertical smooth tube
driving force of the frost formation.
The mathematical model of the frost formation on the cryogenic
The vaporization of LNG inside the AAV fin tube is a convective
surface is based on the conservation laws of mass and energy. The
flow boiling of nonazeotropic mixture. The flow boiling involves
1002 S. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 999–1006

different heat transfer mechanisms and flow patterns. There is no

Start
accurate universal model for the flow boiling heat transfer calcula-
tion up to now. However, several correlations were proposed in the
Input geometry, operation and ambient
past for predicting the heat transfer coefficient of flow boiling parameters; calculation number m, j=0
[15,16]. According to Chen and Shi [11], Zou correlation [12] is rec-
ommended to predict the flow boiling heat transfer of LNG in a ver- Calculate Tb and Td
tical smooth tube.
This paper divided the LNG vaporization process into three
stages based on the bubble point Tb and the dew point Td: (1) single Input tube segments n, i=0
liquid phase, (2) mixture phase and (3) single vapor phase. The
heat transfer coefficient of the single phase can be calculated using Calculate hi based on single phase
the traditional dimensionless correlation for convective heat trans- correlation or Zou correlation
fer. Zou correlation was used to calculate the heat transfer coeffi-
cient for the mixture phase. The bubble point Tb and the dew Assume Tw0
point Td were calculated based on the vapor-liquid equilibrium
[17]. The thermophysical properties of LNG and NG were calcu-
Calculate Rf based on the
lated by REFPROP software, which is developed by NIST [18]. This cryogenic frost model
software can be used to calculate the properties of the industrial
fluids and their mixtures.
Calculate K based on
The correlation recommended by Zou et al. [12] is expressed in equation (1) and get Tw1
Eq. (6).

0:5
2
h ¼ ðEhl Þ þ ðFm Shnb Þ ð6Þ No
( Tw0 − Tw1 ) / ( Tw0 + Tw1 ) ≤ 0005
.

where E is the enhancement factor; hl is the heat transfer coefficient

Yes
of the liquid phase; S is the suppression factor; hnb is the heat trans-
fer coefficient of the nucleate boiling. Calculate Tf and i=i+1
  0:35
ql
E ¼ 1 þ vPrl 1 ; S No i>n
qv

1 GDi Yes
¼ 1 þ 0:055E0:1 Re0:16
lo ; Relo ¼ ð6aÞ
ll Output results …j=j+1

0:55
hnb ¼ 55P 0:12
c ðlog10 ðPc ÞÞ M0:5 q0:67
 0:9   !1
DT bp p q
Fm ¼ 1 þ jY 1  X 1 j0:29 1  0:87exp 
DT id 10 5
3  105
where v is the vapor quality; Prl is the Prandtl number of the liquid;
G is the mass flux; DTbp is the temperature glide; DTid is the ideal
temperature difference; Y1 is the vapor phase composition of the
more volatile component; X1 is the liquid phase composition of
the more volatile component.
The integrated heat transfer model is so complex that cannot be
solved analytically. Therefore, we use Matlab to solve the model
numerically and the calculation progress is developed to make
the solution concise and reliable. The tube of the AAV was assumed
to be one-dimensional due to the high slenderness ratio. The tube
segments and the iteration time were set based on the indepen-
dence tests. Fig. 3 illustrates the logic and flowchart of the calcula-
tion. The numerical calculation consists of three parts divided by Tb
and Td. The local heat transfer coefficient hi of the single phase was
calculated using the single phase correlation, and hi of the mixture
phase was calculated using the Zou correlation.
3. Results and discussions
The frost formation increases the thermal resistance and
reduces the heat transfer coefficient of the AAV fin tube, and the
heat transfer performance will get worse as the frost grows thicker.
Based on the developed coupled model of cryogenic frost forma-
tion and the coupled heat transfer, the thermal resistance of the
frost layer and the coupled dynamic heat transfer performance of
AAV were investigated.
ð6bÞ
j>m No
Yes
End
ð6cÞ
Fig. 3. Flowchart of calculation program for the AAV under frost formation.
3.1. Thermal resistance of the frost layer
Thermal resistance of the frost layer Rf will reduce the heat
transfer coefficient of AAV as Eq. (1) shows, and it can be affected
by the operation time, atmospheric condition and the wall temper-
ature of the AAV. The definition of Rf has the following form:
df
Rf ¼ ð7Þ
kf
where df is the thickness of the frost layer and kf is the thermal con-
ductivity of the frost. All the variables in Eq. (7) change with the
operation time.
Fig. 4 shows the relationship between the thermal resistance of
the frost layer and the operation time. It can be seen that the ther-
mal resistance increases with time. At the beginning of the frost
formation, the thermal resistance increases rapidly, and then
slowly as time goes on. This is because that the thickness of the
frost layer grows fast at the beginning of the frost formation and
then becomes slowly. When the thickness of the frost layer grows
to a certain extent, the frost density begins to increase.
Numerical calculations on different air temperatures were car-
ried out to check the influence of the air temperature on the ther-
mal resistance of frost. Fig. 5 shows how the thermal resistance
changes with air temperature at different operation time. The ther-
 S. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 999–1006
Fig. 4. The change of frost thermal resistance with time. Ta = 303 K, u = 50%,
Tw = 200 K.
Fig. 5. The change of frost thermal resistance with different air temperature.
u = 50%, Tw = 200 K.
mal resistance firstly increases with air temperature and then
decreases, and the maximum value occurs at about 255–261 K
depending on the operation time. We named the corresponding
air temperature of the maximum thermal resistance a ‘‘peak ther-
mal resistance temperature”. When the air temperature is lower or
higher than this range, the frost grows more slowly and heat trans-
fer coefficient is a little better. When the air temperature is lower,
the mass transfer of the water vapor is slow, forming a thinner
frost layer. When the air temperature is higher, the back melting
and regrowth of the frost layer alternate quickly, leading to high
frost density and low thermal conductivity.
In order to investigate the effect of the air humidity on the ther-
mal resistance, numerical calculations were also carried out and
the results are shown in Fig. 6. We found that the trend is similar
to Fig. 4, and the maximum thermal resistance value occurs when
air humidity is about 30%. The thermal resistance ranges from 0.12
to 0.18 (m2 K/W) when the air humidity changes from 5% to 100%,
and this means that the air humidity has less influence on the ther-
mal resistance compared to the air temperature.
Fig. 7 shows how the thermal resistance changes with different
wall temperatures. The thermal resistance decreases almost lin-
early as the wall temperature increases. There is no frost formation
when the wall temperature is above 270 K in this case. The
1003
Fig. 6. The change of frost thermal resistance with relative humidity. Ta = 293 K,
Tw = 200 K.
Fig. 7. The change of frost thermal resistance with different wall temperature.
Ta = 293 K, u = 50%.
variation range of the thermal resistance with different wall tem-
perature is wide.
It can be seen from the above analysis that the wall temperature
is the major influencing factor, followed by the air temperature,
and the relative humidity is the least influencing factor. Therefore,
the thermal resistance of frost on the AAV fin tube mainly varies
with the distance to the LNG inlet, because the wall temperature
of the fin tube changes along with the distance to the LNG inlet.
3.2. Dynamic heat transfer performance of AAV
Based on the proposed coupled heat transfer model of the AAV,
numerical calculations and analysis on existing market AAV model
QQNG-2000/1.2 were conducted. The geometries and the operat-
ing parameters of this AAV model are listed in Table 1. The air tem-
perature is 283 K, and the relative humidity is 50%.
Fig. 8 shows that the thickness of the frost layer on the AAV fin
tube varies with the tube length and the operation time. No matter
how long the AAV operates, the thickness of the frost layer near the
LNG inlet is the highest, and gradually become thinner along with
the tube length. The thickness declines almost linearly along the
tube from 0 m to about 4 m, but increases sharply at about 4 m.
It is mainly because that the subcooled boiling begins at about
4 m, which has a much higher heat transfer coefficient than the
single phase. Therefore the wall temperature declines rapidly at
1004 S. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 999–1006

Table 1
The geometries and operating parameters of the AAV.

Structure Nominal capacity Tin Operation pressure Number of tube Number of fin on each tube Di Do d H L
3
In parallel 2000 Nm /h 111 K 0.6 Mpa 10 12 28 mm 32 mm 4 mm 80 mm 48 m

Note: Tin is the inlet temperature of LNG; Di and Do is the inner diameter and external diameter of the fin tube; d is the thickness of the fin; H is the height of the fin; L is the
length of fin tube in series.

18 640
8 hours
16 560
Frost layer thickness (mm)

4 hours No frost
14
480
12

K(W/(m2·K))
2 hours 400
2 hours
10
1 hours 320 4 hours
8 1 hours 8 hours
240
6
160
4
80
2
0
0 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48
Length(m)
Length(m)
Fig. 10. The coupled heat transfer coefficient of the AAV along with the tube length.
Fig. 8. The frost layer thickness along with the tube length at different operation
time.

to 6 W/(m2 K) gradually. The frost formation hinders the heat

transfer and reduces hair by 85% near the inlet of LNG. However, hair
the beginning of the boiling, which leads to thicker frost layer. The
increases due to the frost formation near the outlet with thin frost
thickness of the frost layer remains constant from 4 m to about 20–
layer. This is because that the thinner frost layer near the outlet
26 m. This is because that the temperature of the mixture of LNG
destroys the boundary layer of the natural convection, and thus
and natural gas is almost constant, and the wall temperature is rel-
strengthening the surface heat transfer to some extent.
atively stable [19]. Under the same atmospheric condition, the
Compared to the forced convection and flow boiling heat trans-
thickness only depends on the wall temperature of the fin tube.
fer of LNG inside the AAV fin tube, heat transfer of the air side is
On the other hand, the thickness gradually increases as the opera-
much weaker. The coefficient hair greatly affects the coupled heat
tion time goes on, and the covering area of the frost layer grows
transfer coefficient K, therefore the change trend of hair and K are
bigger and bigger. However, the frost layer will not grow forever
similar. Fig. 10 shows the coupled heat transfer coefficient K at dif-
with the operation time because the energy balance will be finally
ferent operation time. On the whole, frost formation reduces the
reached. The thermal resistance of frost layer grows as operation
value of K, and the reduction extent gets bigger as the operation
time goes on, therefore AAV should be shut down and defrosted
time goes on. The dynamic heat transfer performance of AAV
periodically.
depends on the frost formation under the same atmospheric and
As can be seen from Fig. 9, the convective heat transfer coeffi-
operating conditions.
cient of the air, hair around the AAV fin tube is affected by the frost
Frost formation restricts the operation of the AAV, therefore a
formation. In the beginning of the AAV operation, hair maintains a
second AAV unit has to be employed to let the first AAV unit
high level with the highest value up to 14 W/(m2 K), and decreases

310
300
16
290
14 4 hours 280
Outlet temperature(K)

8 hours 270
12 2 hours
260
hair (W/(m2·K))

1 hours
10 250
No frost
8 240
230 303K
6
220 293K
4 210 283K
200 273K
2
190
0 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 48 Operation time(h)
Length(m)
Fig. 11. The outlet temperature of natural gas related to the operation time at
Fig. 9. The convective heat transfer coefficient of the air along with the tube length. different air temperature.
 S. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 999–1006 1005

Table 2
The geometries and operating parameters of the HAI848F type AAV.

Structure Nominal capacity Tin Operation pressure Number of tube Number of fin on each tube Di Do d H L
3
In parallel 524 Nm /h 135 K 1.6 Mpa 8 12 20 mm 24 mm 2 mm 82 mm 32 m

Inlet pressure transmitter Outlet pressure transmitter manufactured by Cryoquip company was numerically calculated.
LNG tank The numerical results were compared with the test data conducted
by the research department of Cryoquip [21]. The geometrical
parameters and the operating conditions of the numerical
calculation were the same with the tests by Cryoquip as Table 2
Gas pipeline shows. The test setup of the AAV vaporization system is shown
in Fig. 12.
The tests were conducted in winter and summer respectively.
The main test data were the outlet temperatures of natural gas
at different operation time. The inlet pressure, temperature, and
AAV the flow rate of LNG were kept constant during the test period.
Outlet temperature sensor
Inlet temperature sensor The temperature sensor is armoured platinum resistance with an
uncertainty of ±0.15 K. The air temperature and the relative
Psychrometer humidity were tested by the psychrometer with an uncertainty
Data monitor system of ±0.2 K and ±0.2% RH. All the pressure and temperature data
can be transmitted to the data monitor system.
Fig. 13 shows the comparisons between the numerical results
Fig. 12. Schematic diagram of test setup for LNG AAV system.
and the test data. It can be seen that the numerical results agree
well with the test data. The relative error was about 2.1% in
300
summer and 3.5% in winter, and the changing trends of Tout are
the same. The calculated Tout was a little lower than the test results
290
in summer, but a little higher in winter. In summer, the
Outlet temperature (K)

atmospheric temperature is high, leading to relatively high radiant

280
270
260
250
240
0 4 8 12 16
Operation time (h)
Test data(summer) Numerical calculation(summer)
Test data(winter) Numerical calculation(winter)
Fig. 13. Comparison between the numerical calculated and testing outlet temper-
ature related to the operation time. Ta = 294 K, u = 70% (summer); Ta = 267 K,
u = 50% (winter).
defrost and thus to provide an acceptable outlet temperature of
natural gas. The switching period of the AAV units in gas terminals
depends on the outlet temperature, which should not be more than
8–10 K lower than the ambient air according to the gas standard
[20]. Fig. 11 shows that the variation of the outlet temperature
with the operation time and the air temperature under the same
relative humidity. The outlet temperature basically drops as the
operation time goes on. When the air temperature gets lower,
the outlet temperature will drops faster. The outlet temperature
is lower than 273 K after 10 h operation when the air temperature
is 283 K, which cannot meet the requirement. Even worse, when
the air temperature is 273 K, the AAV should be switched to the
backup unit after only 4 h operation.
4. Example and validation
To validate the accuracy of the coupled heat transfer model
developed in this paper, a HAI848F type AAV, which was
heat transfer rate. However, the radiant heat transfer was
neglected in the model, thus making the numerical results a little
lower than the test data. In winter, the lack of the melting make
the frost layer more porous and cumulate, which will block the
flow channel of the air and decrease the heat transfer coefficient.
The block effect of the frost layer was neglected in the model, mak-
ing the numerical results a little higher than the test data. In the
future research, both the radiant heat transfer and the block effect
of the frost layer should be considered to further improve the
20 24 developed model.
5. Conclusions
The dynamic heat transfer analysis of LNG ambient air vapor-
izer under frost conditions was studied in this paper. A coupled
dynamic heat transfer model considering the LNG flow boiling
and the cryogenic frost formation was developed and validated
by the test data of a commercial AAV. The main conclusions are:
(1) The thermal resistance of the cryogenic frost layer increases
with the operation time, and its major influencing factor is
the wall temperature of fin tube, followed by the air temper-
ature and the relative humidity. There exists an ambient air
temperature range named ‘peak thermal resistance temper-
ature’ at about 255–261 K depending on the operation time
of the AAV. In this range the thermal resistance of the frost
layer is much higher. In addition, the thermal resistance is
higher when the relative humidity of the air is around 30%
if other conditions are the same. Therefore, these two work-
ing conditions should be avoided for the operation of AAV in
order to reduce the thermal resistance of the frost layer.
(2) The coupled dynamic heat transfer model incorporating the
LNG flow boiling and the cryogenic frost formation works
well and can provide theoretical basis for the better opera-
tion and design of the AAV.
1006 S. Liu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 110 (2017) 999–1006
(3) Frost formation on the AAV greatly affects the coupled heat
transfer performance of the AAV, and the influence becomes
stronger as the operation time goes on. The coupled heat
transfer coefficient along the tube length is heavily influ-
enced by the frost formation.
(4) According to the outlet temperature of natural gas, the effec-
tive operation time to switch the cycle of AAV can be
obtained. For the same type of AAV, the effective operation
time becomes shorter when the air temperature is lower.
Acknowledgements
One of the authors(Shanshan Liu) wishes to acknowledge the
technical advice and support from Pingyi Eden Security Engineer-
ing Company and Linyi Yage Security Technology Company.
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