Convective heat transfer characteristics of laminar pulsating pipe air flow

 Heat transfer characteristics to laminar pulsating pipe flow under different conditions of Reynolds number and pulsation frequency were experimentally investigated. The tube wall of uniform heat flux condition was considered. Reynolds number was varied from 780 to 1987 while the frequency of pulsation ranged from 1 to 29.5 Hz. The results showed that the relative mean Nusselt number is strongly affected by pulsation frequency while it is slightly affected by Reynolds number. The results showed enhancements in the relative mean Nusselt number. In the frequency range of 1–4 Hz, an enhancement up to 30% (at Reynolds number of 1366 and pulsation frequency of 1.4 Hz) was obtained. In the frequency range of 17–25 Hz, an enhancement up to 9% (at Reynolds number of 1366 and pulsation frequency of 17.5 Hz) was indicated. The rate of enhancement of the relative mean Nusselt number decreased as pulsation frequency increased or as Reynolds number increased. A reduction in relative mean Nusselt number occurred outside these ranges of pulsation frequencies. A reduction in relative mean Nusselt number up to 40% for pulsation frequency range of 4.1–17 Hz and a reduction up to 20% for pulsation frequency range of 25–29.5 Hz for Reynolds numbers range of 780–1987 were considered. This reduction is directly proportional to the pulsation frequency. Empirical dimensionless equations have been developed for the relative mean Nusselt number that related to Reynolds number (750 < Re < 2000) and the dimensionless frequency (3<Ω<18) with about 10% rms. Received on 16 May 2000 / Published online: 29 November 2001     

Heat transfer characteristics and Nusselt number correlation of turbulent pulsating pipe air flows

Heat transfer characteristics to turbulent pulsating pipe flows under a wide range of Reynolds number and pulsation frequency were experimentally investigated under uniform heat flux condition. Reynolds number was varied from 8462 to 48540 while the frequency of pulsation ranged from 1 to 29.5 Hz. The results showed that the relative mean Nusselt number is strongly affected by both pulsation frequency and Reynolds number. Enhancements in mean Nusselt number of up to 50% were obtained at medium pulsation frequency between 4.1 and 13.9 Hz for Reynolds number range of 8462 to 14581. An enhancement of up to 50% in mean Nusselt number was obtained at high pulsation frequency range between 13.9 and 29.5 Hz, specially as Reynolds number is close to 15000, while a reduction was observed at higher Reynolds number more than 21200. This reduction, at high Reynolds number, increased as pulsation frequency increased. Also, there was a reduction in mean Nusselt number of up to 20% that obtained at low pulsation frequency range between 1 and 4.1 Hz for Reynolds number range of 8462 to 48543. A significant reduction in mean Nusselt number of up to 40% was obtained at medium pulsation frequency between 4.1 and 13.9 Hz for Reynolds number range of 21208 to 48543. Empirical equations have been developed for the relative mean Nusselt number that related to Reynolds number and dimensionless frequency with about uncertainty of 10% rms.The support of both King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals and Cairo University for this research is acknowledged.     

An experimental investigation of heat transfer to pulsating pipe air flow with different amplitudes

Heat transfer characteristics to both laminar and turbulent pulsating pipe flows under different conditions of Reynolds number, pulsation frequency, pulsator location and tube diameter were experimentally investigated. The tube wall of uniform heat flux condition was considered for both cases. Reynolds number varied from 750 to 12,320 while the frequency of pulsation ranged from 1 to 10 Hz. With locating the pulsator upstream of the inlet of the test section tube, results showed an increase in heat transfer rate due to pulsation by as much as 30% with flow Reynolds number of 1,643 and pulsation frequency of 1 Hz, depending on the upstream location of the pulsator valve. Closer the valve to the tested section inlet, the better improvement in the heat transfer coefficient is achieved. Upon comparing the heat transfer results of the upstream and the downstream pulsation, at Reynolds number of 1,366 and 1,643, low values of the relative mean Nusselt number were obtained with the upstream pulsation. Comparing the heat transfer results of the two studied test sections tubes for Reynolds number range from 8,000 to 12,000 and pulsation frequency range from 1.0 to 10 Hz showed that more improvement in heat transfer rate was observed with a larger tube diameter. For Reynolds number ranging from 8,000 to 12,000 and pulsation frequency of 10 Hz, an improvement in the relative mean Nusselt number of about 50% was obtained at Reynolds number of 8,000 for the large test section diameter of 50 mm. While, for the small test section diameter of 15 mm, at same conditions of Reynolds number and frequency, a reduction in the relative mean Nusselt number of up to 10% was obtained.     

Flow and heat transfer in a pipe with a fin attached to inner wall

Enhancement of heat transfer to the fluid can be done by turbulence promoters such as attached fins to the pipe walls. In this study, the flow field and the heat transfer rates were numerically investigated in a pipe with an internally attached fin. Numerical simulations were conducted for four different types of fluids and for different fin heights and locations, and as the Reynolds number was varied, the effects of the fin on Nusselt number and friction factors were investigated. For all the Reynolds numbers considered in this study, the effect of fin location on the heat transfer rate and friction factor was negligible. As the fin height was increased, the mean Nusselt number and the friction factor also increased in the turbulent flow regimes. For low Prandtl number fluids (Pr = 0.011), the main heat transfer mode is conduction, and hence the mean Nusselt number slightly affected the flow rates.     

Influence of vibration in enhancement of heat transfer rates from thin plannar fins

The enhancement of heat transfer rates without an extension of heat removal surface area due to packaging and compactness is essential. This paper investigates the possibility of the enhancement of heat transfer rate from heat sink having thin planner fins by normal vibration. In this study; the heat sink was selected to be the personal computer heat sink as a test specimen. It has four similar quadrants; each quadrant has a definite number of thin planer fins. The specimen is heated by an electric heater at its bottom. A circular disc cam with an offset center is used to vibrate the specimen with different displacement amplitude and frequency. Temperature measurements for both the surface of the specimen and surrounding air were recorded and saved by using a data acquisition system at different sample times according to the vibration frequency. The effect of both vibration frequency and displacement amplitude on the enhancement of heat transfer rate was clarified. Deduced empirical correlation among Nusselt number, Strouhal number and Reynolds number was found. It was found that the normal vibration can enhance the heat transfer rate for the case study by about 85% rather than the steady flow case if both are having the same average velocity. In a comparison among the present investigation and those by the literature, the influence of vibration on heat transfer enhancement may be slightly greater than that of the pulsating flow.     

Turbulent heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop in swirling flow at upstream and downstream of an abrupt expansion

This investigation is aimed at studying the heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop for turbulent airflow in a sudden expansion pipe equipped with propeller swirl generator. The investigation is performed for the Reynolds number ranging from 10,000 to 41,000 under a uniform heat flux condition. The experiments are conducted for three locations for the propeller fan upstream the sudden expansion and three locations downstream the sudden expansion (N = 5 blades and blade angle of 45°). The influences of using a freely rotating propeller on heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop are reported. The experimental results indicate that inserting the propeller downstream of the tube provides considerable improvement of the heat transfer rate higher than inserting the propeller upstream the tube. The increase in pressure drop resulting from using the propeller upstream is found to be higher than the downstream swirler. The maximum performance enhancement for the downstream swirler is about 326% while it is about 213% for upstream one. Correlations for relative mean Nusselt number and enhancement performance are presented for different fan locations and different Reynolds numbers.     

Experimental study of pre-swirl flow effect on the heat transfer process in the entry region of a convergent pipe

Experiments have been performed to study the heat transfer process of swirling flow issued into a heated convergent pipe with a convergent angle of 5° with respect to the pipe axis. A flat vane swirler situated at the entrance of the pipe is used to generate the swirling flow. During the experiments, the Reynolds number ranges from 7970 to 47,820, and the swirl number from 0 to 1.2. It is found that the convergence of the pipe can accelerate the flow which has an effect to suppress the turbulence generated in the flow and reduce the heat transfer. However, in the region of weak swirl (S = 0-0.65), the Nusselt numbers increase with increasing swirl numbers until S = 0.65, where turbulence intensity is expected to be large enough and not suppressible. In the region of strong swirl (S > 0.65), where recirculation flow is expected to be generated in the core of the swirling flow, the heat transfer characteristic can be altered significantly. At very high swirl (S ? 1.0), the accelerated flow in the circumferential direction is expected to be dominant, which leads to suppress the turbulence and reduce the heat transfer. The Nusselt number is found proportional to the swirl number. Correlations of the Nusselt numbers in terms of the swirl number, the Reynolds number and the dimensionless distance are attempted and are very successful in both the weak and the strong swirl regions.     

Convective heat transfer in single-phase flow in a vertical tube subjected to axial low frequency oscillations

The effect of oscillations on the heat transfer in a vertical tube has been studied experimentally. A vertical tube was mounted on a plate and the whole plate was subjected to oscillations in the vertical plane using a mechanical oscillator to provide low frequency oscillations. A section of the tube in the middle is subjected to a constant heat flux. The effect of the oscillations on the heat transfer coefficient has been examined. It was found that the heat transfer coefficient increased with oscillations in the laminar regime. In turbulent flow regime (Re > 2,100) it is found that the effect of oscillations did not show any change. A correlation has been developed for enhancement of the local Nusselt number in terms of the effective acceleration and Reynolds number. Using this, an expression has been proposed to calculate the mean Nusselt number as a function of the tube length.     

Effect of the pattern of initial perturbations on the steady pipe flow regime

The influence of the inlet flow formation mode on the steady flow regime in a circular pipe has been investigated experimentally. For a given inlet flow formation mode the Reynolds number Re* at which the transition from laminar to turbulent steady flow occurred was determined. With decrease in the Reynolds number the difference between the resistance coefficients for laminar and turbulent flows decreases. At a Reynolds number approximately equal to 1000 the resistance coefficients calculated from the Hagen-Poiseuille formula for laminar steady flow and from the Prandtl formula for turbulent steady flow are equal. Therefore, we may assume that at Re > 1000 steady pipe flow can only be laminar and in this case it is meaningless to speak of a transition from one steady pipe flow regime to the other. The previously published results [1–9] show that the Reynolds number at which laminar goes over into turbulent steady flow decreases with increase in the intensity of the inlet pulsations. However, at the highest inlet pulsation intensities realized experimentally, turbulent flow was observed only at Reynolds numbers higher than a certain value, which in different experiments varied over the range 1900–2320 [10]. In spite of this scatter, it has been assumed that in the experiments a so-called lower critical Reynolds number was determined, such that at higher Reynolds numbers turbulent flow can be observed and at lower Reynolds numbers for any inlet perturbations only steady laminar flow can be realized. In contrast to the lower critical Reynolds number, the Re* values obtained in the present study, were determined for given (not arbitrary) inlet flow formation modes. In this study, it is experimentally shown that the Re* values depend not only on the pipe inlet pulsation intensity but also on the pulsation flow pattern. This result suggests that in the previous experiments the Re* values were determined and that their scatter is related with the different pulsation flow patterns at the pipe inlet. The experimental data so far obtained are insufficient either to determine the lower critical Reynolds number or even to assert that this number exists for a pipe at all.     

The influence of an abrupt convergence on heat transfer in circular ducts

The effect of an abrupt convergence on the local heat transfer coefficient at the entrance of a uniformly heated straight pipe has been investigated. Experiments were carried out with water for Reynolds numbers from 200 to 2000, and for Prandtl numbers 4 and 6. The experimental values of the local Nusselt number are considerably lower than expected and strongly Reynolds number dependent in the region near the inlet, whereas they become comparatively high further downstream. This behaviour is discussed in connection with the hypothesis of the occurrence of a separated flow at the inlet section of the pipe. These and several previous experiments, covering turbulent and transitional flows, have been considered and summarised to obtain a general view of the effect of this geometrical configuration on heat transfer     

Average Nusselt number correlation in the thermal entrance region of steady and pulsating turbulent pipe flows

Empirical correlation has been developed for local and average Nusselt numbers in the thermal entrance region of steady and pulsating turbulent air-flows in a pipe. The correlation was based on experimental data obtained from experiment carried out on a pipe heated under uniform heat flux conditions. The rate of flow was periodically varied at frequencies ranging from 1 Hz to 13 Hz while the average Reynolds number varied from 6400 to 42000. Received on 20 October 1998     

Local heat transfer distribution between smooth flat surface and impinging air jet from a circular nozzle at low Reynolds numbers

An experimental investigation is performed to study the effect of jet to plate spacing and low Reynolds number on the local heat transfer distribution to normally impinging submerged circular air jet on a smooth and flat surface. A single jet from a straight circular nozzle of length-to-diameter ratio (l/d) of 83 is tested. Reynolds number based on nozzle exit condition is varied between 500 and 8,000 and jet-to-plate spacing between 0.5 and 8 nozzle diameters. The local heat transfer characteristics are obtained using thermal images from infrared thermal imaging technique. It was observed that at lower Reynolds numbers, the effect of jet to plate distances covered during the study on the stagnation point Nusselt numbers is minimal. At all jet to plate distances, the stagnation point Nusselt numbers decrease monotonically with the maximum occurring at a z/d of 0.5 as opposed to the stagnation point Nusselt numbers at high Reynolds numbers which occur around a z/d of 6.     

Numerical analysis on longitudinal location optimization of vortex generator in compact heat exchangers

In this paper, numerical, curvilinear and turbulent model has been used to investigate the effect of vortex generator's longitudinal displacement on heat transfer and fluid flow in different Reynolds numbers ranging from 500 to 3000. The numerical model has been validated with experimental results of a former study, which is resembled in a particular case. Numerical simulation shows that the vorticity enhancement would increase both Nusselt number and pressure drop. Proposed trend is not constant and the pattern in which parameters change is dependent on Reynolds number. Finally, a conjugated optimization of pressure drop and the Nusselt number has been suggested based on the order of parameter changes. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An experimental study and CFD analysis towards heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of decaying swirl pipe flow generated by axial vanes

In this presentation, influences of axial vane swirler on heat transfer augmentation and fluid flow are investigated both experimentally and numerically. The swirl generator is installed at the inlet of the annular duct to generate decaying swirling pipe flow. Three different blade angels of 30°, 45° and 60° were examined. Meanwhile, flow rate was adjusted at Reynolds numbers ranging from 10000 to 30000. Study has been done under uniform heat flux condition and air was used as working fluid. Experimental results confirm that the use of vane swirler leads to a higher heat transfer compared with those obtained from plain tubes. Depending on blade angle, overall Nusselt augmentation is found from 50% to 110% while friction factor increases by the range of 90–500%. Thermal Performance evaluation has been done for test section and test section together with swirler. In both cases, thermal performance increases as vane angle is raised and decreases by growth of Re number. When increasing the blade angle, higher decay rate has been observed for local Nusselt number. In CFD analysis, time-averaged governing equations were solved numerically and RSM model was applied as the turbulence model. Here, the simulation results of axial and tangential velocities, turbulent kinetic energy, wall stresses and swirl intensity are provided. They illustrate the effect of swirling pattern on mean flow and turbulence structure, as well as on improving heat transfer enhancement in the annular duct.     

Experimental study of heat transfer and flow characteristics of liquid falling film on a horizontal fluted tube

The aim of the present study is to investigate experimentally the effect of the fluted surface tube on the heat transfer and flow characteristics of liquid falling film. Experiments have indicated that, when a liquid falling film falls on a horizontal fluted surface tube, the transition starts at low Reynolds number than that of the plain tube. The value of the film thickness has been slightly decreased by decreasing the fluted pitch. A reduction of the film thickness was observed at about 9% for tube number 4, which has lower pitch, at Reynolds number of 485. A clear reduction of the dimensionless wavelength, λ*, has occurred at low fluted pitch tube. The use of enhanced surfaces can provide heat transfer coefficients higher values than those obtained from plain tube. Heat transfer enhancement was noticed due to the use of fluted tube surface. An improvement of the Nusselt number reached about 45% for tube 4. However, the low values of the fluted pitch increased the heat transfer enhancement than that of the high values.     

Effect of flow pulsation on laminar heat transfer between two parallel plates

The problem of heat transfer in viscous laminar pulsatile flow between two parallel plates is solved by means of a finite difference method. Boundary conditions of constant wall temperature and constant wall heat flux are considered separately. The numerical results show that flow pulsations change the instantaneous Nusselt number, but do not have any significant effect on the time-averaged values. A trend in reduction of timeaveraged Nusselt number is observed when the amplitude of flow pulsation increases and the frequency decreases. The validity of the result is limited to the case when no flow reversal exists.     

Effect of corner angle on convection enhancement in wavy ducts with trapezoidal cross‐sections

The effect of corner angle variations on pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics is investigated in the fully developed region of wavy ducts with trapezoidal cross‐sections. The resulting enhancement of convection, with respect to corresponding straight ducts, can be attributed to the formation of longitudinal vortices close to the two parallel surfaces. Numerical simulations show that Nusselt numbers and friction factors increase with the decrease of corner angle from 90 to 60^°, before levelling out around 60^°. Nusselt numbers and friction factors also increase with the Reynolds number, and the slopes of their representative curves increase above a critical value of the Reynolds number because of the onset of time‐periodic flow oscillations. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Steady and Unsteady Heat Transfer in a Channel Partially Filled with Porous Media Under Thermal Non-Equilibrium Condition

Steady and pulsatile flow and heat transfer in a channel lined with two porous layers subject to constant wall heat flux under local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) condition is numerically investigated. To do this, a physical boundary condition in the interface of porous media and clear region of the channel is derived. The objective of this work is, first, to assess the effects of local solid-to-fluid heat transfer (a criterion indicating on departure from local thermal equilibrium (LTE) condition), solid-to-fluid thermal conductivity ratio and porous layer thickness on convective heat transfer in steady condition inside a channel partially filled with porous media; second, to examine the impact of pulsatile flow on heat transfer in the same channel. The effects of LTNE condition and thermal conductivity ratio in pulsatile flow are also briefly discussed. It is observed that Nusselt number inside the channel increases when the problem is tending to LTE condition. Therefore, careless consideration of LTE may lead to overestimation of heat transfer. Solid-to-fluid thermal conductivity ratio is also shown to enhance heat transfer in constant porous media thickness. It is also revealed that an increase in the amplitude of pulsation may result in enhancement of Nusselt number, while Nusselt number has a minimum in a certain frequency for each value of amplitude.     

Heat convection from a cylinder performing steady rotation or rotary oscillation – Part II: Rotary oscillation

This paper deals with the problem of combined (forced and natural) convection from a horizontal cylinder performing oscillating rotary motion in a quiescent fluid of infinite extent. While forced convection is caused by cylinder oscillation, the natural convection is caused by the buoyancy driven flow. The heat transfer process is governed by Rayleigh number, Ra, Reynolds number, Re, and the dimensionless frequency of oscillation, S. The study covers Ra up to 10³, Re up to 400 and S up to 0.8. The results showed that, for the same Ra, the time-averaged rate of heat transfer lies in between two limiting values. The first, is the steady state heat rate due to natural convection from a fixed cylinder and the second is the steady state heat rate from a cylinder rotating steadily at a speed equal to the maximum speed of rotational oscillation. The smaller the value of Re the nearer the time-averaged Nusselt number to that of fixed cylinder at the same Ra and the higher Re the lower the average Nusselt number. The effect of frequency is only limited to changing the amplitude of the fluctuating Nusselt number. Received on 15 December 1997     

Hydrodynamic and thermal fields analysis in gas-solid two-phase flow

The present work aims to investigate numerically the flowfield and heat transfer process in gas-solid suspension in a vertical pneumatic conveying pipe. The Eulerian-Lagrangian model is used to simulate the flow of the two-phases. The gas phase is simulated based on Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) with low Reynolds number k-ε model, while particle tracking procedure is used for the solid phase. An anisotropic model is used to calculate the Reynolds stresses and the turbulent Prandtl number is calculated as a function of the turbulent viscosity. The model takes into account the lift and drag forces and the effect of particle rotation as well as the particles dispersion by turbulence effect. The effects of inter-particles collisions and turbulence modulation by the solid particles, i.e. four-way coupling, are also included in the model. Comparisons between different models for turbulence modulation with experimental data are carried out to select the best model. The model is validated against published experimental data for velocities of the two phases, turbulence intensity, solids concentration, pressure drop, heat transfer rates and Nusselt number distribution. The comparisons indicate that the present model is able to predict the complex interaction between the two phases in non-isothermal gas-solid flow in the tested range. The results indicate that the particle-particle collision, turbulence dispersion and lift force play a key role in the concentration distribution. In addition, the heat transfer rate increases as the mass loading ratio increases and Nusselt number increases as the pipe diameter increases.