The influence of Stefan flow on the flow and heat-transfer characteristics of spherical-particle pair in supercritical water

•Numerical study on flow and heat transfer of SCW flow around particle pair with Stefan flow.•The fluid-particle interactions with different particle pair configurations under the Stefan flow.•The analysis of flow field, force, and heat transfer process around particles. For any flow process of mixtures containing dispersed reactive particles, especially highly concentrated particles, the particle-particle, and fluid-particle interactions are very complex and affect the overall flow. Supercritical water gasification technology is a complex multiphase-flow process that occurs in high-temperature reactors. Under these conditions, the components of the particle surface are heated and gasify to form a Stefan flow (i.e., a mass flow), which modifies fluid-particle interactions. The interaction between particles and the influence of Stefan flow cannot be ignored. In this work, we consider the simplest case of two identical spherical particles with different relative orientations and particle distances and discuss the flow and fluid-particle heat-transfer characteristics by numerical simulation of supercritical water flowing around the fixed two-particle system. We are particularly interested in the fluid-particle interactions with different particle configurations under the influence of Stefan flow. Three particle configurations are possible: tandem, cross, and parallel. The flow field, Nusselt number, drag coefficient, and temperature distribution around the particles are all analyzed. In comparison with a single particle, the two-particle configurations significantly affect the drag coefficient, Nusselt number, and vortex structure and Stefan flow strongly affects the wake vortex structure of two particles with small particle distance, reducing the drag coefficient and Nusselt number.