Thermal Cascade

Thermal Cascade

Tube walls and reactor internals for viscous, slow-moving liquids. Designed by simulation, made by forming or printing.

Temperature and secondary flow at the start of one period
0
Temperature and secondary flow a quarter of a period along
¼
Temperature and secondary flow half a period along
½
Temperature and secondary flow three quarters of a period along
¾ of one period along the tube
Our CFD: temperature (colour) and secondary flow (lines) in a shape-varying wall, Re 200, Pr 7. Patent pending. See the tube ↓

Our laminar heat exchanger design

Designed for viscous liquids, the rocking tube drives a constant exchange of liquid between the wall and the core of the tube.

  • Developing Thermal Cascade's design engine for passive mixers and heat-transfer walls.
  • Rocking-wall tube family: Australian provisional application filed.
  • Oscillatory flow reactor: Australian provisional application filed.

Performance

The lobed wall re-energises the rotational component of flow through the alternating cross-section, whilst carrying no net twist in the pipe. The tube is designed to be pressed or swaged from a round tube. More complex or deeper versions are printed.

Improved thermal performance per metre of tube translates to shorter tubes for the same duty. Other benefits, such as fouling reduction from improved circulation, are currently untested.

We are looking for one forming partner to make a 300 mm trial length and measure it with us.

Thermal performance factor at Re 1000

Thermal performance factor at Reynolds number 1000, five tube types Plain tube 1.00, corrugated tube 1.02, helical static mixer 3.74, twisted tape 4.43, rocking wall with three deep lobes 5.81. Laminar flow, Prandtl number 7, one numerical chain for every device. plain tube 1.00 corrugated tube 1.02 helical static mixer 3.74 twisted tape, twist ratio 2.5 4.43 rocking wall, three lobes, deep 5.81 012 345 6 TPF, plain tube = 1

Re 1000, Pr 7, laminar; every bar from the same numerical chain. TPF = (Nu/Nu0)/(f/f0)1/3 at equal Reynolds number, Nu per unit wall area. Computed (CFD) and stated in the filed application; to be measured in metal.

The rocking tube against each device at Re 600, 1000 and 2000
Thermal performance factor, TPF = (Nu/Nu0)/(f/f0)1/3 at equal Reynolds number (Nu per unit wall area), of the rocking tube as a multiple of each device's. Laminar flow, Pr 7. Computed (CFD) and stated in the filed application; to be measured in metal.
relative toRe 600Re 1000Re 2000
plain tube4.8–5.0×5.8–6.5×7.2–9.0×
twisted-tape insert–1.3×1.3×
helical static mixer1.5×1.6×1.9×
corrugated tube–5.7×2.1×
one-hand twisted tube, same section5.2×1.6×1.2–1.4×

Design studies

We also design to order.

You give

  • the fluid and its properties
  • flow rate and temperature programme
  • the passage you have
  • how you make it, and its limits (formed tube, printed core, plate stack)

You get

  • a wall or core geometry file
  • predicted heat transfer and pressure drop against your incumbent, at equal pumping power
  • a short report
  • a licence to use the design on your line

The design method itself isn't part of the deliverable.

Time and fee

Time and fee: a feasibility study in two to three weeks, in the low thousands (AUD); a wall designed to your line in four to six weeks, from AUD 10,000. Feasibility study low thousands AUD 2–3 weeks Wall designed to your line from AUD 10,000 4–6 weeks 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 weeks

Then a printed or formed test piece, measured together, and a licence or ongoing arrangement if the trial justifies it.

Founder

I'm Joshua Taubman. I trained as a nuclear engineer in France, came back to Sydney, and spent the past year building a design method for flow passages — coupling fluid structure to solid topology. Thermal Cascade grew out of that work and the computational pipelines behind it; the tube wall and the reactor internals are both products of the same process.

Contact

For a forming trial, a design study or a conversation about a duty you have, write to me directly. I reply within two working days.

E-mail
LinkedIn
Joshua Taubman
Where
Sydney, Australia
Useful to include
the fluid, flow rate and temperatures, the exchanger or reactor you have now, and how it is made.