Experimental investigation of heat transfer in vertical upward and downward supercritical CO2 flow in a circular tube

An experimental investigation of turbulent heat transfer in vertical upward and downward supercritical CO₂ flow was conducted in a circular tube with an inner diameter of 4.5 mm. The experiments were performed for bulk fluid temperatures from 29 to 115 °C, pressures from 74.6 to 102.6 bar, local wall heat fluxes from 38 to 234 kW/m², and mass fluxes from 208 to 874 kg/m² s. At a moderate wall heat flux and low mass flux, the wall temperature had a noticeable peak value for vertical upward flow, but increased monotonically along the flow direction without a peak value for downward flow. The ratios of the experimental Nusselt number to the value obtained from a reference correlation were compared with Bo^* and q⁺ distributions to observe the buoyancy and flow-acceleration effects on heat transfer. In the experimental range of this study, the flow acceleration predominantly affected the heat-transfer phenomena. Based on an analysis of the shear-stress distribution in the turbulent boundary layer and the significant variation of the specific heat across the turbulent boundary layer, a new heat-transfer correlation for vertical upward and downward flow of supercritical pressurized fluid was developed; this correlation agreed with various experimental datasets within ±30%.     

Fluid flow due to combined convection in lid-driven enclosure having a circular body

The present work is aimed to study mixed convection heat transfer characteristics for a lid-driven air flow within a square enclosure having a circular body. Flows are driven by the left lid, which slides in its own plane constant velocity. This wall is isothermal and it moves up or down in y direction while the other walls remain stationary. The horizontal walls are adiabatic. The cavity is differentially heated and the left wall is maintained at a higher temperature than the right wall. Three different temperature boundary conditions were applied for the inner cylinder as adiabatic, isothermal or conductive. The computation is carried out for wide ranges of Richardson numbers, diameter of inner cylinder and center and location of the inner cylinder. It was found that the most effective parameter on flow field and temperature distribution is the orientation of the moving lid. The circular body can be a control parameter for heat and fluid flow. An interesting obtained result that the thermal conductivity becomes insignificant for small values of diameter of the circular body.     

The variation of heat transfer in a two‐sided lid‐driven differentially heated square cavity with nanofluids containing carbon nanotubes for physical properties of fluid dependent on temperature

The behavior of nanofluids containing cylindrical nanoparticles are investigated numerically inside a two‐sided lid‐driven differentially heated square cavity to gain insight into the convective recirculation and flow processes induced by a nanofluid. The physical properties of the base fluid such as viscosity, thermal conductivity and thermal expansion coefficient are, respectively, assumed to be temperature independent (taking the mean temperature of the left and right walls) and temperature dependent. A model is developed to analyze the behavior of nanofluids taking into account the nanoparticle volume fraction whereas the transport equations are solved numerically with finite volume approach using SIMPLEC algorithm. The left and right moving walls are maintained at different constant temperatures while the upper and bottom walls are thermally insulated. The directions of the moving walls were considered in a way that the force and natural convections aid each other. The governing parameter Richardson number was 0.1<Ri<50.0 but due to space constraints only the results for 0.1<Ri<10.0 from fluid flow are presented. It was found that the temperature dependency of physical properties at different Richardson numbers and nanoparticle volume fractions affects the fluid flow and heat transfer in the cavities. Finally, comparisons between the behaviors of the average Nusselt number at the left wall for two cases are presented. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Conduction-radiation effect on natural convection flow in fluid-saturated non-Darcy porous medium enclosed by non-isothermal walls

The combined effect of conduction-convection-radiation on natural convection flow of an optically thick Newtonian fluid with gray radiant properties, confined in a porous media square cavity with Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer drag is studied numerically. For a gray fluid, Rosseland diffusion approximation is considered. It is assumed that (i) the temperature of the left vertical wall varies linearly with height, (ii) the right vertical and top walls are at a lower temperature, and (iii) the bottom wall is uniformly-heated. The governing equations are solved using the alternate direct implicit method together with the successive over relaxation technique. The investigation of the effect of governing parameters, namely, the Forschheimer resistance (Γ), the temperature difference (Δ), and the Plank number (Rd), on the flow pattern and heat transfer characteristics is carried out. It can be seen that the reduction of flow and heat transfer occur as the Forschheimer resistance is increased. On the other hand, both the flow strength and heat transfer increase as the temperature ratio Δ is increased.     

Numerical and experimental study of heat transfer in a tall vertical closed cavity

In this work the numerical and experimental results of heat transfer in a vertical tall closed cavity are presented. The cavity has an aspect ratio of 20, one of the vertical walls receive a constant and uniform heat flux, while the opposite wall is kept at a constant temperature. The remaining walls are assumed adiabatic. The cavity is full of air. The computational fluid dynamics software Fluent 6.3 was used for the simulation and an experimental prototype was built to obtain the heat transfer coefficients. The air temperature and the fluid velocity values are higher when emissivity (ε) is 0.03 (almost pure natural convection). The experimental total heat transfer coefficient increases between 119.9 and 159.9 % when the emissivity of the walls changes from 0.03 to 0.95.     

Numerical study of mixed convection and conduction in a 2-D square ventilated cavity with an inlet at the vertical glazing wall and outlet at the top surface

A steady state numerical study of combined laminar mixed convection and conduction heat transfer in a ventilated square cavity is presented. The air inlet gap is located at the bottom of a vertical glazing wall and air exits the cavity via a gap located at the top surface. Three locations for the opening at the top surface: left (case a), center (case b) and right side (case c) are considered. All the remaining surfaces are considered adiabatic. The mass, momentum and energy conservation equations were solved using the finite volume method for different Rayleigh numbers in the interval of 10⁴ < Ra < 10⁶ and Reynolds number in the interval of 100 < Re < 700. Temperature, flow field, and heat transfer rates are analyzed. The effect of the interaction between ambient conditions outside the glazing and the air inlet gap at the bottom for different air outlet gap positions at the top surface modifies the flow structure and temperature distribution of the air inside the cavity. The Nusselt number as a function of the Reynolds number was determined for the three cases. It was found that configuration for case (a) removes a higher amount of heat entering the cavity compared to cases (b) and (c). This is due to the short distance between the main stream and the glass wall surface. Thus, the forced airflow entering the cavity is assisted by the buoyancy forces, and most of the cavity remains at the inlet flow temperature, which should be appropriate for warm climates. These results may provide useful information about the heat transfer and fluid flow for future studies.     

Numerical investigation of fully developed turbulent fluid flow and heat transfer in a square duct

Three-dimensional fully developed turbulent fluid flow and heat transfer in a square duct are numerically investigated with the author's anisotropic low-Reynolds-number k-ε turbulence model. Special attenton has been given to the regions close to the wall and the corner, which are known to influence the characteristics of secondary flow a great deal. Hence, instead of the common wall function approach, the no-slip boundary condition at the wall is directly used. Velocity and temperature profiles are predicted for fully developed turbulent flows with constant wall temperature. The predicted variations of both local wall shear stress and local wall heat flux are shown to be in close agreement with available experimental data. The present paper also presents the budget of turbulent kinetic energy equation and the systematic evaluation for existing wall function forms. The commonly adopted wall function forms that are valid for two-dimensional flows are found to be inadequate for three-dimensional turbulent flows in a square duct.     

On the viscous dissipation modeling of thermal fluid flow in a porous medium

The problem of viscous dissipation and thermal dispersion in saturated porous medium is numerically investigated for the case of non-Darcy flow regime. The fluid is induced to flow upward by natural convection as a result of a semi-infinite vertical wall that is immersed in the porous medium and is kept at constant higher temperature. The boundary layer approximations were used to simplify the set of the governing, nonlinear partial differential equations, which were then non-dimensionalized and solved using the finite elements method. The results for the details of the governing parameters are presented and investigated. It is found that the irreversible process of transforming the kinetic energy of the moving fluid to heat energy via the viscosity of the moving fluid (i.e., viscous dissipation) resulted in insignificant generation of heat for the range of parameters considered in this study. On the other hand, thermal dispersion has shown to disperse heat energy normal to the wall more effectively compared with the normal diffusion mechanism.     

Numerical study of Prandtl effect on MHD flow at a lid‐driven porous cavity

In this paper, the lattice Boltzmann method is used to study the Prandtl number effect on flow structure and heat transfer rates in a magnetohydrodynamic flow mixed convection in a lid‐driven cavity filled with a porous medium. The right and left walls are at constant but different temperatures (θ_h and θ_c), while the other walls are adiabatic. Gallium and salt water (0.02 < Pr < 13.4) are used as samples of the electroconducting fluids in the cavity. Typical sets of streamlines and isotherms are presented to analyze the flow patterns set up by the competition among the forced flow created by the lid‐driven wall, the buoyancy force of the fluid and the magnetic force of the applied magnetic field. Mathematical formulations in the porous media were constructed based on the Brinkman–Forchheimer model, while the multidistribution‐function model was used for the magnetic field effect. Numerical results were obtained and the effects of the Prandtl number and the other effective parameters such as Richardson, Hartman, and Darcy numbers were investigated. It was found that the fluid fluctuations within the cavity were reduced by increasing the Hartman number. A similar pattern was observed for the Darcy number reduction. Heat transfer was essentially dominated by the conduction for the low Prandtl number and forced convection dominated as the Prandtl number increased. Also, the average Nusselt number was raised by increasing the Prandtl number. It was discovered that a remarkable heat transfer enhancement of up to 28% could be reached by increasing the Prandtl number (from 0.02 to 13.4) at constant Richardson and Darcy numbers. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Combined Forced and Free Convective Flow in a Vertical Porous Channel: The Effects of Viscous Dissipation and Pressure Work

Buoyant flow is analysed for a vertical fluid saturated porous layer bounded by an isothermal plane and an isoflux plane in the case of a fully developed flow with a parallel velocity field. The effects of viscous dissipation and pressure work are taken into account in the framework of the Oberbeck–Boussinesq approximation scheme and of the Darcy flow model. Momentum and energy balances are combined in a dimensionless nonlinear ordinary differential equation solved numerically by a Runge–Kutta method. Both cases of upward pressure force (upward driven flows) and of downward pressure force (downward driven flows) are examined. The thermal behaviour for upward driven flows and downward driven flows is quite different. For upward driven flows, the combined effects of viscous dissipation and pressure work may produce a net cooling of the fluid even in the case of a positive heat input from the isoflux wall. For downward driven flows, viscous dissipation and pressure work yield a net heating of the fluid. A general reflection on the roles played by the effects of viscous dissipation and pressure work with respect to the Oberbeck–Boussinesq approximation is proposed.     

Mixed convection from upward flow of hot air to a cooled vertical pipe

An experimental study had been carried out to investigate the buoyancy-opposed mixed convection from an upward flow of hot air to a vertical pipe with a cooled surface. The investigation covered a wide range of flow regime, ranging from the “free convection significant” to the “forced convection significant” conditions. Reynolds number of the flow extended from 966 to 14780, whereas the Buoyancy parameter, Ω [=Gr_d/(Re_d)²], varied from 0.008 to 2.77. A steady stream of hot air at a moderate pressure and a Prandtl number of 0.707 was arranged to flow upward through a vertical steel pipe, whose external wall was cooled uniformly by ambient air at 20°C. Test section of the vertical pipe was 1625 mm long with an internal diameter of 156 mm and an external diameter of 166 mm. Air temperature at inlet of the test section was varied from 40°C to 70°C. Both radial temperature and velocity profiles of the airflow were measured at inlet and exit of the test section respectively. Temperatures along the pipe wall were also measured. Non-dimensional expression for the prediction of the average heat transfer coefficient of the mixed convection from an upward flow of hot air to a vertical pipe with a cooled surface was developed from the experimental results. Convection heat transfer was found to impair when the flow is laminar and was enhanced for turbulent flow condition. Received on 20 July 1998     

An experimental study of the effect of wall temperature nonuniformity on natural convection in an enclosure heated from the side

An experimental study of natural convection in a parallelepipedal enclosure induced by a single vertical wall is described. The upper half of this wall was warm and the lower half cold. The other enclosure walls were insulated. The temperature and flow measurements were performed in the high Rayleigh number regime (10¹⁰<Ra<5×10¹⁰) by using water as the working fluid. The Rayleigh number was based on the enclosure height and the temperature difference between the warm and the cold part of the driving wall. The flow field featured two flat cells, one filled with warm fluid along the top horizontal wall, and the other filled with cold fluid along the bottom horizontal wall. Each of these cells was surrounded by an additional cell as tall as half the enclosure height. The above flow structure prohibited extensive thermal contact between warm and cold fluid, thus limiting the role of convection on the heat transfer process in the cavity. The findings of this study differ significantly from the findings of previous studies based on the ‘classical’ enclosure model possessing two isothermal vertical walls, the one warm and the other cold, and support the view that the use of ‘more realistic‘ temperature boundary conditions in enclosure natural convection needs careful examination.     

Flow structure and wall layer control in a lower half heated upper half cooled enclosure with superimposed temperature deviations

This paper presents an investigation on the effects of superimposed temperature deviations as a control technique for the flows and mixing in lower half heated upper half cooled enclosures. Results show that the strength of the wall layer depends on the difference between the wall surface temperature and the fluid core temperature. The location of the head-on collision between a pair of upward/downward wall layers, which controls the mixing and fluid exchange between the two halves, is determined by the wall layer flow momentum strengths. Elevating/reducing the wall temperature by a superimposed temperature deviation is an effective control for the flow and mixing in such enclosures. Heat transfer analysis shows that the superimposed temperature deviations have minor effects on the total heat flow rate from the lower walls. Thus, this technique can be applied onto reactor vessels without modifying the reactor vessel configuration.     

A numerical study of laminar heat transfer at bottom surface of a cavity submerged in separated flow region of duct

For the two cavity models whose upward and downward wall heights are different from each other, laminar heat transfer is studied numerically in a finite difference method. The effects of cavity configuration, free-stream velocity and buoyancy force on flow and temperature fields as well as heat transfer at the bottom surface are discussed. The flow pattern of DOF (Downward-Facing cavity)-model is more intricated than that of UPF (Upward-Facing cavity)-model, depending on the aspect ratio of cavity or main flow velocity. The mean Nusselt numberNu _m at the bottom surface of both cavity models tends generally to increase with increasing Re_HorGr _w/Re _H ² . However, in the flow region ofRe _H & 500 for DOF-cavity, theNu _m for 0.4 ≦ D₂/D₁ ≦ 0.6 is somewhat lower than that obtained from the other cavities and does not always increase with increasingRe _H.     

Natural Convection in a Cavity Filled with Porous Layers on the Top and Bottom Walls

Natural convection in a partially filled porous square cavity is numerically investigated using SIMPLEC method. The Brinkman-Forchheimer extended model was used to govern the flow in the porous medium region. At the porous-fluid interface, the flow boundary condition imposed is a shear stress jump, which includes both the viscous and inertial effects, together with a continuity of normal stress. The thermal boundary condition is continuity of temperature and heat flux. The results are presented with flow configurations and isotherms, local and average Nusselt number along the cold wall for different Darcy numbers from 10⁻¹ to 10⁻⁶, porosity values from 0.2 to 0.8, Rayleigh numbers from 10³ to 10⁷, and the ratio of porous layer thickness to cavity height from 0 to 0.50. The flow pattern inside the cavity is affected with these parameters and hence the local and global heat transfer. A modified Darcy–Rayleigh number is proposed for the heat convection intensity in porous/fluid filled domains. When its value is less than unit, global heat transfer keeps unchanged. The interfacial stress jump coefficients β ₁ and β ₂ were varied from  −1 to +1, and their effects on the local and average Nusselt numbers, velocity and temperature profiles in the mid-width of the cavity are investigated.     

Effect of Time Periodic Boundary Conditions on Convective Flows in a Porous Square Enclosure with Non-Uniform Internal Heating

The problem of unsteady natural convection in a square region filled with a fluid-saturated porous medium having non-uniform internal heating and heated laterally is considered. The heated wall surface temperature varies sinusoidally with the time about fixed mean temperature. The opposite cold wall is maintained at a constant temperature. The top and bottom horizontal walls are kept adiabatic. The flow field is modelled with the Darcy model and is solved numerically using a finite difference method. The transient solutions obtained are all periodic in time. The effect of Rayleigh number, internal heating parameters, heating amplitude and oscillating frequency on the flow and temperature field as well as the total heat generated within the convective region are presented. It was found that strong internal heating can generate significant maximum fluid temperatures above the heated wall. The location of the maximum fluid temperature moves with time according to the periodically changing heated wall temperature. The augmentation of the space-averaged temperature in the cavity strongly depends on the heating amplitude and rather insensitive to the oscillating frequency.     

Model-free inversion of squeeze-flow rheometer data

A method for extracting rheological data from squeeze-flow tests is proposed. The analysis, based upon the lubrication approximation for a generalized Newtonian fluid, differentiates experimental data in order to obtain an estimate of the wall shear rate (as in the Weissenberg–Rabinowitsch correction for the capillary rheometer) and of the wall shear stress. Two examples are discussed. The first is based on an approximate expression for the force required to squeeze a Herschel–Bulkley fluid. The second example concerns a power-law fluid with partial slip at the plates (but non-zero wall shear stress). Second derivatives of the experimental data are required: the interpretation of noisy results is therefore likely to be difficult.     

Streamline upwind finite element method for conjugate heat transfer problems

This paper presents a combined finite element method for solving conjugate heat transfer problems where heat conduction in a solid is coupled with heat convection in viscous fluid flow. The streamline upwind finite element method is used for the analysis of thermal viscous flow in the fluid region, whereas the analysis of heat conduction in solid region is performed by the Galerkin method. The method uses the three-node triangular element with equal-order interpolation functions for all the variables of the velocity components, the pressure and the temperature. The main advantage of the proposed method is to consistently couple heat transfer along the fluid-solid interface. Three test cases, i.e. conjugate Couette flow problem in parallel plate channel, counter-flow in heat exchanger, and conjugate natural convection in a square cavity with a conducting wall, are selected to evaluate the efficiency of the present method. The English text was polished byYunming Chen.     

Combined effects of rotation and translation on a MHD flow due to compressible viscous fluid

Summary The modification of an axi-symmetric viscous flow due to a relative rotation of a disk or fluid by a translation of the boundary are studied. The fluid is taken to be compressible and electrically conducting. The equations governing the motion are solved iteratively through a central-difference scheme. The effect of an axial magnetic field and disk temperature on the flow and heat transfer are included in the present analysis. The translation of the disk or fluid generates a velocity field at each plane parallel to the disk (secondary flow). The cartesian components of the velocity due to the secondary flow are oscillatory in nature when a rigid body rotation of the free stream along with a translation of the disk is considered. The magnetic field damps out the velocity field, and reduces the thickness of the boundary layer. The cross component of wall shear due to secondary flow acts in a direction opposite to the rotation of the disk or fluid for all cases of the motion. The rise in disk temperature produces an increment in the magnitude of the wall shear associated with the secondary flow.     

A fractal analysis of subcooled flow boiling heat transfer

A fractal model for the subcooled flow boiling heat transfer is proposed in this paper. The analytical expressions for the subcooled flow boiling heat transfer are derived based on the fractal distribution of nucleation sites on boiling surfaces. The proposed fractal model for the subcooled flow boiling heat transfer is found to be a function of wall superheat, liquid subcooling, bulk velocity of fluid (or Reynolds number), fractal dimension, the minimum and maximum active cavity size, the contact angle and physical properties of fluid. No additional/new empirical constant is introduced, and the proposed model contains less empirical constants than the conventional models. The proposed model takes into account all the possible mechanisms for subcooled flow boiling heat transfer. The model predictions are compared with the existing experimental data, and fair agreement between the model predictions and experimental data is found for different bulk flow rates.