Investigation of the heat transfer mechanism in supersonic turbulent boundary layers

A method is described for calculating turbulent Prandtl numbers from Mach number and total temperature profiles in supersonic boundary layers. The calculations are based on boundary layer measurements in the Mach number range from 3.5 to 5. The investigations clearly indicate that in addition to accurate profile measurements reliable values of shear stress and heat flux at the wall must exist, in order to be able to calculate the turbulent Prandtl number in the viscous regime of the boundary layer. For flow conditions with and without heat transfer, the derived turbulent Prandtl numbers indicate that the turbulent transport of heat decreases much faster towards the wall than the turbulent transport of momentum. The results of the analysis show that only the unequivocal qualitative result of increasing turbulent Prandtl numbers in the viscous region of the boundary layer, can be expected. The variation of the turbulent Prandtl number can be described successfully using a simple approximation, based on the mixing length concept, and is applied to the calculation of total temperature distribution using the law of the wall for compressible flow.     

A Priori Tests of RANS Models for Turbulent Channel Flows of a Dense Gas

Dense gas effects, encountered in many engineering applications, lead to unconventional variations of the thermodynamic and transport properties in the supersonic flow regime, which in turn are responsible for considerable modifications of turbulent flow behavior with respect to perfect gases. The most striking differences for wall-bounded turbulence are the decoupling of dynamic and thermal effects for gases with high specific heats, the liquid-like behavior of the viscosity and thermal conductivity, which tend to decrease away from the wall, and the increase of density fluctuations in the near wall region. The present work represents a first attempt of quantifying the influence of such dense gas effects on modeling assumptions employed for the closure of the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations, with focus on the eddy viscosity and turbulent Prandtl number models. For that purpose, we use recent direct numerical simulation results for supersonic turbulent channel flows of PP11 (a heavy fluorocarbon representative of dense gases) at various bulk Mach and Reynolds numbers to carry out a priori tests of the validity of some currently-used models for the turbulent stresses and heat flux. More specifically, we examine the behavior of the modeled eddy viscosity for some low-Reynolds variants of the \(k-\varepsilon \) model and compare the results with those found for a perfect gas at similar conditions. We also investigate the behavior of the turbulent Prandtl number in dense gas flow and compare the results with the predictions of two well-established turbulent Prandtl number models.     

DNS of turbulent heat transfer in a channel flow with a high spatial resolution

Direct numerical simulations of turbulent heat transfer in a channel flow are performed to investigate the effects of Reynolds and Prandtl numbers on higher-order turbulence statistics such as a turbulent Prandtl number and the budget for the dissipation rate of the temperature variance. The Reynolds numbers based on the friction velocity and the channel half width are 180 and 395, and the molecular Prandtl numbers Pr’s 0.71–10.0. Careful attention is paid to ensure accuracy of the higher-order statistics through the use of a high spatial resolution comparable to Batchelor length scale. The wall-asymptotic value of the turbulent Prandtl number is mostly independent of Reynolds number for the current range of Pr’s. The budget for the dissipation rate of the temperature variance has been computed, and the negligible effect of a Reynolds number on the sum of all source and sink terms in near-wall region in the current computational range is found. This result is quite similar to the one in the budget for the dissipation rate of turbulent energy. In addition, a priori test for existing models is also performed to assess the Pr dependence on the individual terms and their summations in the budget.     

Turbulent heat transfer for pipe flow with uniform heat generation

An Analytic solution is presented of the problem of turbulent heat transfer in pipes with internal heat generation and insulated wall by applying a recently-developed eddy conductivity model. The results agree closely with available experimental data for a wide range of Prandtl number (0.02–10.5).     

Thermo-mechanical modeling of turbulent heat transfer in gas–solid flows including particle collisions

A thermo-mechanical turbulence model is developed and used for predicting heat transfer in a gas–solid flow through a vertical pipe with constant wall heat flux. The new four-way interaction model makes use of the thermal k_θ–τ_θ equations, in addition to the hydrodynamic k–τ transport, and accounts for the particle–particle and particle–wall collisions through a Eulerian/Lagrangian formulation. The simulation results indicate that the level of thermal turbulence intensity and the heat transfer are strongly affected by the particle collisions. Inter-particle collisions attenuate the thermal turbulence intensity near the wall but somewhat amplify the temperature fluctuations in the pipe core region. The hydrodynamic-to-thermal times-scale ratio and the turbulent Prandtl number in the region near the wall increase due to the inter-particle collisions. The results also show that the use of a constant or the single-phase gas turbulent Prandtl number produces error in the thermal eddy diffusivity and thermal turbulent intensity fields. Simulation results also indicate that the inter-particle contact heat conduction during collision has no significant effect in the range of Reynolds number and particle diameter studied.     

Heat transfer in turbulent pipe flow based on a new mixing length model

A new model for the heat transfer in turbulent pipe flow is presented based on a modified form of the mixing length theory developed by Cebeci [1] for boundary layer flow problems. The model predicts the velocity and temperature distributions and the Nusselt number for fluids with low, medium and high Prandtl numbers (Pr=.02 to 15) and fits the available experimental data very accurately for values of Reynolds number exceeding 10⁴. Expressions for the eddy conductivity and for the turbulent Prandtl number are presented and shown to be dependent upon the Reynolds number, the Prandtl number, and the distance from the tube wall.     

Turbulent thermal boundary layer on a plate. Reynolds analogy and heat transfer law over the entire range of prandtl numbers

Arational asymptotic theory is proposed,which describes the turbulent dynamic and thermal boundary layer on a flat plate under zero pressure gradient. The fact that the flow depends on a finite number of governing parameters makes it possible to formulate algebraic closure conditions relating the turbulent shear stress and heat flux with the gradients of the averaged velocity and temperature. As a result of constructing an exact asymptotic solution of the boundary layer equations, the known laws of the wall for velocity and temperature, the velocity and temperature defect laws, and the expressions for the skin friction coefficient, Stanton number, and Reynolds analogy factor are obtained. The latter makes it possible to give two new formulations of the temperature defect law, one of which is identical to the velocity defect law and contains neither the Stanton number nor the turbulent Prandtl number, and the second formulation does not contain the skin friction coefficient. The heat transfer law is first obtained in the form of a universal functional relationship between three parameters: the Stanton number, the Reynolds number, and the molecular Prandtl number. The conclusions of the theory agree well with the known experimental data.     

Modelling of thermal wall boundary conditions with temperature-dependent material properties for use in RANS

The present work extends a recently proposed P-function based model for describing the near-wall variation of temperature in forced convective turbulent flow to the case with temperature-dependent material properties. The extension essentially modifies the model formulations for describing the local variation of the turbulent mixing length and the turbulent Prandtl number. Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) and experimental measurements are carried to provide comprehensive validation data for a wide range of Reynolds numbers, considering molecular Prandtl numbers well beyond unity. The observed good agreement of the predictions with the DNS data and experiments proves the present extended model as a well-suited approach for prescribing reliable thermal boundary conditions in Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations, assuming temperature-dependent material properties.     

Turbulent heat-transfer characteristics along the heated convex wall of a rectangular cross-sectional return bend

The turbulent heat-transfer characteristics along the heated convex wall of a return bend which has rectangular cross section with large ratio have been examined for various clearances of the duct in detail. The experiments are performed under condition that the convex wall is heated at uniform heat flux while the concave wall is insulated. Water as a working fluid is utilized. Using four kinds of clearances of 15, 40, 60 and 80 mm, the Reynolds number in the turbulent range is varied from 8×10³ to 8×10⁴ with Prandtl number ranging from 6.5 to 8.5. In consequence, it is found that both the local and the mean heat-transfer rates are always smaller than those for straight parallel plates or for the straight duct. It is also found that the local heat-transfer characteristics in the outlet region of the return bend are more sensitively influenced by the variation of duct clearance than those in the inlet region.     

Development of a turbulent near-wall temperature model and its application to channel flow

A numerical study of fluid flow and heat transfer in a two-dimensional channel under fully developed turbulent conditions is reported. A computer program which is capable of treating both forced and natural convection problems under turbulent conditions has been developed. The code uses the high-Reynolds-number form of the two equation turbulent model(k-?) in which a turbulent kinetic energy near-wall model is incorporated in order to accurately represent the behavior of the flow near the wall, particularly in the viscous sublayer where the turbulent Reynolds number is small. A near-wall temperature model has been developed and incorporated into the energy equation to allow accurate prediction of the temperature distribution near the wall and, therefore, accurate calculation of heat transfer coefficients. The sensitivity of the prediction of flow and heat transfer to variations in the coefficients used in the turbulence model is investigated. The predictions of the model are compared to available experimental and theoretical results; good agreement is obtained. The inclusion of the near-wall temperature model has further improved the predictions of the temperature profile and heat transfer coefficient. The results indicate that the turbulent kinetic energy Prandtl number should be a function of Reynolds number.     

Large-eddy simulation of turbulent channel flow at transcritical states

We present well-resolved large-eddy simulations (LES) of a channel flow solving the fully compressible Navier–Stokes equations in conservative form. An adaptive look-up table method is used for thermodynamic and transport properties. A physically consistent subgrid-scale turbulence model is incorporated, that is based on the Adaptive Local Deconvolution Method (ALDM) for implicit LES. The wall temperatures are set to enclose the pseudo-boiling temperature at a supercritical pressure, leading to strong property variations within the channel geometry. The hot wall at the top and the cold wall at the bottom produce asymmetric mean velocity and temperature profiles which result in different momentum and thermal boundary layer thicknesses. Different turbulent Prandtl number formulations and their components are discussed in context of strong property variations.     

A comprehensive assessment of the Reynolds Analogy in predicting heat transfer in turbulent wall-bounded shear flows

Heat transfer modeling plays a major role in design and optimization of modern and efficient thermal-fluid systems. However, currently available models suffer from a fundamental shortcoming: their development is based on the general notion that accurate prediction of the flow field will guarantee an appropriate prediction of the thermal field, known as the Reynolds Analogy. This investigation presents a comprehensive assessment of the capability of the Reynolds Analogy in predicting turbulent heat transfer when applied to turbulent shear flows of fluids with different Prandtl numbers. It turns out that the Reynolds Analogy is able to provide acceptable results for first order statistics only when fluids with Prandtl number close to unity are considered. Further, it is shown that unsteady simulations could provide acceptable results on second order statistics concerning fluids with different Prandtl numbers, if appropriate grid design/resolution is provided that allows to resolve essential dynamics of the thermal field. However, accurate prediction of higher order statistics close to solid surface requires more advanced heat transfer models that can provide accurate information on thermal time scales, in case the grid is too coarse to support accurate resolving of the essential thermal dynamics in these regions.     

Effect of Prandtl number on the linear stability of compressible Couette flow

Accurate prediction of laminar to turbulent transition in high-speed flows is a challenging task. Compressibility, and the resultant large variations in the transport properties can affect the transition process significantly. In this paper, we study the influence of Prandtl number, the ratio of momentum to heat diffusivity, in Couette flows at high Mach numbers. It is a part of an ongoing research programme to isolate and understand the transport property effects on the stability of high-speed flows. As a first step, we neglect the high-temperature effects and vary the Prandtl number in the range 0.9 to 0.2, by changing the relative magnitudes of viscosity and conductivity. A temporal linear stability analysis shows that the variation of phase speed with Prandtl number leads to synchronization between two acoustic modes, with peaks in growth rate at the synchronization points. Two types of branching patterns are observed depending on the Prandtl number, and the branch type determines which of the two modes is destabilized and which one is stabilized due to synchronization. Further, the mode shapes are either retained as earlier or interchanged between the two acoustic modes depending on the branching pattern. The stability diagrams for varying Mach and Reynolds numbers show a destabilizing role of decreasing the Prandtl number, both in terms of increased disturbance growth rates, and of larger regions of instability in the parameter space. It also results in a significant reduction in the critical Reynolds number of the flow, especially at high Mach numbers with wall cooling.     

Direct simulation of turbulent flow and heat transfer in a channel. Part I: Smooth walls

Interest in the use of supercomputers for the direct numerical calculation of turbulence prompts the development of efficient numerical techniques so that calculation at higher Reynolds numbers might be made. This paper presents an efficient pseudo-spectral technique, similar to but different from others that have recently appeared, for the calculation of momentum and heat transfer to a constant-property, turbulent fluid in a two-dimensional channel with walls at different, uniform temperature. The code uses no empiricism, although periodic boundary conditions are used for fluctuating quantities in the streamwise and spanwise directions. Calculations were made for a Prandtl number of 0·72 and Reynolds number based on friction velocity and channel half-height of 180 or 2800 based on channel half-height and average velocity. Calculations of mean velocity profile, turbulence intensities, skewness, flatness, Reynolds stress and eddy diffusivity of heat near a wall compare favourably with experimental results. Representative contour plots of the temperature field near the wall and of the spanwise and streamwise two-point velocity correlations are given. Deficiencies are that the calculation requires many hours on a fast computer with a large high-speed memory and that the grid size in each direction for appropriate resolution is approximately proportional to the square of the Reynolds number and to the Prandtl number raised to some power greater than one.     

Influence of turbulent Prandtl number on heat transfer of a flat plate

In computations involving heat transfer in turbulent flow past bodies it is necessary to assume turbulent Prandtl number distribution across the boundary layer. A review and comparison of results obtained by different authors are given, e.g., in [1–5]. Unfortunately, the existing data are so contradictory that, at present, it does not appear to be possible to establish reliably a function that determines turbulent Prandtl number distribution across the boundary layer. The absence of sufficiently reliable and general results on the distribution of turbulent Prandtl number led to the result that in the majority of studies conducted in earlier years its value was assumed a constant and either close to or equal to one. The effect of turbulent Prandtl number on the intensity of heat transfer from a flat plate is numerically investigated in the present paper. The thermal, turbulent boundary layer equation is integrated for this purpose at different values of turbulent Prandtl number and results are compared with experimental data. Results from [6], where the thermal boundary layer was numerically integrated with Pr_t=1 and compared with experimental data, were used for comparison in the present paper. The same numerical integration procedure as in [6] was used here.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 4, pp. 81–85, July–August, 1984.     

Statistical analysis of instantaneous turbulent heat transfer in circular pipe flows

Turbulent heat transfer in circular pipe flow with constant heat flux on the wall is investigated numerically via Large Eddy Simulations for frictional Reynolds number Re _τ  = 180 and for Prandtl numbers in the range 0.1 ≤ Pr ≤ 1.0. In our simulations we employ a second-order finite difference scheme, combined with a projection method for the pressure, on a collocated grid in cylindrical coordinates. The predicted statistical properties of the velocity and temperature fields show good agreement with available data from direct numerical simulations. Further, we study the local thermal flow structures for different Prandtl numbers. As expected, our simulations predict that by reducing the Prandtl number, the range of variations in the local heat transfer and the Nusselt number decrease. Moreover, the thermal flow structures smear in the flow and become larger in size with less sharpness, especially in the vicinity of the wall. In order to characterize the local instantaneous heat transfer, probability density functions (PDFs) for the instantaneous Nusselt number are derived for different Prandtl number. Also, it is shown that these PDFs are actually scaled by the square root of the Prandtl number, so that a single PDF can be employed for all Prandtl numbers. The curve fits of the PDFs are presented in two forms of log-normal and skewed Gaussian distributions.     

Revised Prandtl mixing length model applied to the two-dimensional turbulent classical wake

Previous applications of Prandtl׳s mixing length model to turbulent wake flows, which neglect the kinematic viscosity of the fluid, have underestimated the width of the boundary layer. In this paper, we present a revised Prandtl mixing length model by including the kinematic viscosity of the fluid. We show that this model predicts a boundary that lies outside the one predicted by Prandtl. We also prove that the results for the two models converge for very large Reynolds number wake flows.     

Scalar turbulence model investigation with variable turbulent Prandtl number in heated jets and diffusion flames

Traditional turbulence models using constant turbulent Prandtl number fail to predict the experimentally observed anisotropies in the thermal eddy diffusivity and thermal turbulent intensity fields. Accurate predictions depend strongly on the turbulence model employed. Consequently, the objective of this paper is to assess the performance of turbulence model with variable turbulent Prandtl number in predicting of thermal and scalar fields quantities. The model is applied to axisymmetric turbulent round jet with variable density and in turbulent hydrogen diffusion flames using the flamelet concept. The k − ɛ turbulence model is used in conjunction with thermal field; the model involves solving supplemental scalar equations for the temperature variance and its dissipation rate. The model predictions are compared with available experimental data for the purpose of validating model. In reacting cases, velocity and scalar (including temperature and mass fractions) predictions agree relatively well in the near field of the investigated diluted hydrogen flames.     

Time-dependent liquid metal flows with free convection and a deformable free surface

The finite element method is employed to investigate time-dependent liquid metal flows with free convection, free surfaces and Marangoni effects. The liquid circulates in a two-dimensional shallow trough with differentially heated vertical walls. The spatial formulation incorporates mixed Lagrangian approximations to the velocity, pressure, temperature and free surface position. The time integration is performed with the backward Euler and trapezoid rule methods with step size control. The Galerkin method is used to reduce the problem to a set of non-linear equations which are solved with the Newton–Raphson method. Calculations are performed for conditions relevant to the electron beam vaporization of refractory metals. The Prandtl number is 0·015 and Grashof number are in the transition range between laminar and turbulent flow. The results reveal the effects of flow intensity, surface tension gradients, mesh refinement and time integration strategy.