Members of the KCORC community have recently contributed to the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics. The paper reviews nonideal compressible fluid dynamic of dense vapors and supercritical fluids.

The study of such flows is important for a number of industrial applications, including organic Rankine and supercritical CO2 power cycles.

The abstract of the paper, including a link to download the article, is provided below:

Nonideal Compressible Fluid Dynamics of Dense Vapors and Supercritical Fluids

Alberto Guardone, Piero Colonna, Matteo Pini, and Andrea Spinelli

Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 2024, Vol. 56:241-269. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-fluid-120720-033342

The gas dynamics of single-phase nonreacting fluids whose thermodynamic states are close to vapor-liquid saturation, close to the vapor-liquid critical point, or in supercritical conditions differs quantitatively and qualitatively from the textbook gas dynamics of dilute, ideal gases. Due to nonideal fluid thermodynamic properties, unconventional gas dynamic effects are possible, including nonclassical rarefaction shock waves and the nonmonotonic variation of the Mach number along steady isentropic expansions. This review provides a comprehensive theoretical framework of the fundamentals of nonideal compressible fluid dynamics (NICFD). The relation between nonideal gas dynamics and the complexity of the fluid molecules is clarified. The theoretical, numerical, and experimental tools currently employed to investigate NICFD flows and related applications are reviewed, followed by an overview of industrial processes involving NICFD, ranging from organic Rankine and supercritical CO2 cycle power systems to supercritical processes. The future challenges facing researchers in the field are briefly outlined.