Numerical simulation of laminar flow and heat transfer over banks of staggered cylinders

A study is conducted to investigate forced convective flow and heat transfer over a bank of staggered cylinders. Using a novel numerical formulation based on a non‐orthogonal collocated grid in a physical plane, the effects of Reynolds number and cylinder spacing on the flow and heat transfer behaviour are systematically studied. It is observed that both the Reynolds number and cylinder spacing influence the recirculatory vortex formation and growth in the region between the cylinders; in turn, the rates of heat transfer between the fluid and the staggered cylinders are affected. As the cylinder spacing decreases, the size and length of eddies reduce. For sufficiently small spacings, eddy formation is completely suppressed even at high Reynolds number. Pressure drop and Nusselt number predictions based on numerical study are in excellent agreement with available correlations. The study provides useful insight on the detailed flow and heat transfer phenomena for the case of a bank of staggered cylinders. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On penalty function methods in the finite-element analysis of flow problems

In this paper the penalty function method is reviewed in the general context of solving constrained minimization problems. Mathematical properties, such as the existence of a solution to the penalty problem and convergence of the solution of a penalty problem to the solution of the original problem, are studied for the general case. Then the results are extended to a penalty function formulation of the Stokes and Navier-Stokes equations. Conditions for the equivalence of two penalty-finite element models of fluid flow are established, and the theoretical error estimates are verified in the case of Stokes's problem.     

A finite element method for analysis of fluid flow,heat transfer and free interfaces in Czochralski crystal growth

A finite element algorithm is presented for simultaneous calculation of the steady state, axisymmetric flows and the crystal, melt/crystal and melt/ambient interface shapes in the Czochralski technique for crystal growth from the melt. The analysis is based on mixed Lagrangian finite element approximations to the velocity, temperature and pressure fields and isoparametric approximations to the interface shape. Galerkin's method is used to reduce the problem to a non-linear algebraic set, which is solved by Newton's method. Sample solutions are reported for the thermophysical properties appropriate for silicon, a low-Prandtl-number semiconductor, and for GGG, a high–Prandtl–number oxide material. The algorithm is capable of computing solutions for both materials at realistic values of the Grashof number, and the calculations are convergent with mesh refinement. Flow transitions and interface shapes are calculated as a function of increasing flow intensity and compared for the two material systems. The flow pattern near the melt/gas/crystal tri-junction has the asymptotic form predicted by an inertialess analysis assuming the meniscus and solidification interfaces are fixed.     

Two fluid flow and heat transfer in an inclined channel containing porous and fluid layer

Convective flow and heat transfer in an inclined channel bounded by two rigid plates held at constant different temperatures with one region filled with porous matrix saturated with a viscous fluid and another region with a clear viscous fluid different from the fluid in first region is studied analytically. The coupled nonlinear governing equations are solved using regular perturbation method. It is found that the presence of porous matrix in one of the region reduces the velocity and temperature. Results have been presented for a wide range of governing parameters such as Grashof number, porous parameter, angle of inclination, ratio of heights of the two layers and also the ratio of viscosities.     

Finite element analysis of convective heat transfer in porous media

The finite element method is used to analyse convective heat transfer in a porous medium. Convection past a vertical surface embedded in the medium and convection in a confined porous medium enclosure are analysed using the above method. The results are compared with those available in the literature and the agreement is found to be good. The method is applicable for two-dimensional analysis in a porous body of any arbitrary shape. The restriction of the boundary layer assumption is relaxed.     

Coupled heat transfer and viscous flow,and magnetic effects in weld pool analysis

A finite element formulation and analysis is developed to study coupled heat transfer and viscous flow in a weld pool. The thermal effects generate not only buoyancy forces but also a variation in the surface tension which acts to drive the viscous flow in the molten weld pool. A moving phase boundary separates molten and solid material. Numerical experiments reveal the nature of the highly convective flow in the weld pool and the associated thermal profiles. The relative importance of buoyancy, surface tension, phase change, convection, etc. are examined. We also consider the sensitivity of the solution to the finite element mesh and related non-linear numerical instabilities. Of particular interest is the coupling of the thermal and viscous flow fields for the case when radial flow is inward or outward.     

Numerical solution of Navier-stokes equations for laminar fluid flow in rows of plates in staggered arrangement

Laminar fluid flow in rows of plate elements with staggered arrangement has been investigated by solving the complete Navier-Stokes equations using numerical methods. The results have been compared with those obtained on the basis of boundary-layer simplifications. The theoretical pressure-drop values compare well with available numerical and experimental data     

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.     

Comparison between the traction and pressure-imposed boundary conditions in finite element flow analysis

A formulation is developed to impose pressure-prescribed boundary conditions in the penalty finite element method. Some numerical experiments for the Poiseuille flow problem are performed to compare it with the conventional traction-prescribed boundary condition. Also the incorrectness of the traction-free outlet boundary condition for contained-flows is studied with explanatory numerical examples. Discussion is focused on the inlet and outlet boundary conditions to simulate fully developed flows. Finally, the three-dimensional flow in a bifurcated pipe is analysed with the proposed formulation.     

Numerical simulation for laminar flow and heat transfer of gas in rectanglar micropassages with constant wall heat flux

Theoretical investigations were performed on the developed laminar flow and convective heat transfer characteristics for incompressible gases flow through rectanglar micropassages with constant wall heat flux. Mathematical models were proposed for considering the change in viscosity and thermal conductivity of gas in the wall-adjacent region from the kinetic theory. The dimensionless velocity distribution and corresponding pressure drop, the dimensionless temperature distribution and corresponding heat transfer characteristics were both simulated numerically, and the results were compared to other report simulations [10–12] with brief discussions.     

Fluid flow and heat transfer test problems for non-orthogonal grids: Bench-mark solutions

Four problems of fluid flow and heat transfer were designed in which non-orthogonal, boundary-fitted grids were to be used. These are proposed to serve as test cases for testing new solution methods. This paper presents solutions of the test problems obtained by using a multigrid finite volume method with grids of up to 320 × 320 control volumes. Starting from zero fields, iterations were performed until the sum of the absolute residuals had fallen seven orders of magnitude, thus ensuring that the variable values did not change to six most significant digits. By comparing the solutions for successive grids at moderate Reynolds and Rayleigh numbers, the discretization errors were estimated to be lower than 0·1%. The results presented in this paper may thus serve for comparison purposes as bench-mark solutions.     

Numerical simulation of flow and heat transfer in a random packed bed

Random packed beds have more complex interior structure than structured beds and are widely used in industry and engineering.CFD simulation was carried out to investigate and analyze the local flow and heat transfer in a 120-sphere random packed bed.3D Navier-Stokes equation was solved with a finite volume formulation based on the Chimera meshing technique.Investigation was focused on low Reynolds number flow(Re=4.6-56.2),which typically occurs in packed bed reactors in bio-chemical fields.Detailed temperature field information was obtained.Inhomogeneity of flow and heat transfer due to the non-uniform distribution of void fraction was discussed and analyzed.     

Heat transfer and two-phase flow characteristics of refrigerants flowing under varied heat flux in a double-pipe evaporator

A mathematical model based on the annular flow pattern is developed to simulate the evaporation of refrigerants flowing under varied heat flux in a double tube evaporator. The finite difference form of governing equations of this present model is derived from the conservation of mass, energy and momentum. The experimental set-up is designed and constructed to provide the experimental data for verifying the simulation results. The test section is a 2.5 m long counterflow double tube heat exchanger with a refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and heating water flowing in the annulus. The inner tube is made from smooth horizontal copper tubing of 9.53 mm outer diameter and 7.1 mm inner diameter. The agreement of the model with the experimental data is satisfactory. The present model can be used to investigate the axial distributions of the temperature, heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of various refrigerants. Moreover, the evaporation rate or the other relevant parameters that is difficult to measure in the experiment are predicted and presented here. The results from the present mathematical model show that the saturation pressure and temperature of refrigerant decrease along the tube due to the tube wall friction and the flow acceleration of refrigerant. The liquid heat transfer coefficient increases with the axial length due to reducing the thickness of the liquid refrigerant film. Due to increase of the liquid heat transfer coefficient, increasing wall heat flux is obtained.Finally, the evaporation rate of refrigerant increases with increasing wall heat flux.     

Numerical modeling of fluid flow and heat transfer in a narrow Taylor-Couette-Poiseuille system

We consider turbulent flows in a differentially heated Taylor-Couette system with an axial Poiseuille flow. The numerical approach is based on the Reynolds Stress Modeling (RSM) of [Elena and Schiestel, 1996] and [Schiestel and Elena, 1997] widely validated in various rotor-stator cavities with throughflow ( [Poncet, 2005], [Poncet et al., 2005] and [Haddadi and Poncet, 2008]) and heat transfer (Poncet and Schiestel, 2007). To show the capability of the present code, our numerical predictions are compared very favorably to the velocity measurements of Escudier and Gouldson (1995) in the isothermal case, for both the mean and turbulent fields. The RSM model improves, in particular, the predictions of the k-ε model of Naser (1997). Then, the second order model is applied for a large range of rotational Reynolds (3744 ? Re_i ? 37,443) and Prandtl numbers (0.01 ? Pr ? 12), flow rate coefficient (0 ? C_w ? 30,000) in a very narrow cavity of radius ratio s = R_i/R_o = 0.961 and aspect ratio L = (R_o − R_i)/h = 0.013, where R_i and R_o are the radii of the inner and outer cylinders respectively and h is the cavity height. Temperature gradients are imposed between the incoming fluid and the inner and outer cylinders. The mean hydrodynamic and thermal fields reveal three distinct regions across the radial gap with a central region of almost constant axial and tangential mean velocities and constant mean temperature. Turbulence, which is weakly anisotropic, is mainly concentrated in that region and vanishes towards the cylinders. The mean velocity distributions are not clearly affected by the rotational Reynolds number and the flow rate coefficient. The effects of the flow parameters on the thermal field are more noticeable and considered in details. Correlations for the averaged Nusselt numbers along both cylinders are finally provided according to the flow control parameters Re_i, C_w, and Pr.     

A numerical study of heat and momentum transfer for tube bundles in crossflow

A numerical scheme is developed to predict the heat transfer and pressure drop coefficients in flow through rigid tube bundles. The scheme uses the Galerkin finite element technique. The conservation equations for laminar steady-state flow are cast in the form of streamfunction and vorticity equations. A Picard iteration method is used for the solution of the resulting system of non-linear algebraic equations. Results for the heat transfer and pressure drop coefficients are obtained for tube arrays of pitch ratios of 1·5 and 2·0. Very good agreement of the present results and experimental data obtained in the past is observed up to Reynolds numbers of 1000. It is also observed that the results of the present method show better agreement with the experimental data and that they are applicable for higher Reynolds numbers than results of other studies.     

Numerical investigation of heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics inside a wavy channel

The periodically fully developed laminar heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics inside a two-dimensional wavy channel in a compact heat exchanger have been numerically investigated. Calculations were performed for Prandtl number 0.7, and Reynolds number ranging from 100 to 1,100 on non-orthogonal non-staggered grid systems, based on SIMPLER algorithm in the curvilinear body-fitted coordinates. Effects of wavy heights, lengths, wavy pitches and channel widths on fluid flow and heat transfer were studied. The results show that overall Nusselt numbers and friction factors increase with the increase of Reynolds numbers. According to the local Nusselt number distribution along channel wall, the heat transfer may be greatly enhanced due to the wavy characteristics. In the geometries parameters considered, friction factors and overall Nusselt number always increase with the increase of wavy heights or channel widths, and with the decrease of wavy lengths or wavy pitches. Especially the overall Nusselt number significantly increase with the increase of wavy heights or channel widths, where the flow may become into transition regime with a penalty of strongly increasing in pressure drop. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Lie group analysis of viscoelastic MHD aligned flow and heat transfer

Exact solutions for an incompressible, viscoelastic, electrically conducting MHD aligned fluid are obtained for velocity components and temperature profiles. Lie Group method is applied to obtain the solution and the symmetries used are of translational type.The English text was polished by Keren Wang and Yunming Chen.     

The influence of fluid properties on electrohydrodynamic heat transfer enhancement in liquids under viscous and electrically dominated flow conditions

Fluid property effects on electrohydrodynamic (EHD) heat transfer enhancement were investigated. Heat transfer, pressure drop, electrical power requirements, and the transition between the viscous dominated and electrically dominated flow regimes as a function of fluid properties were examined using three cooling oils having widely varying physical properties. Low viscosity and low electrical conductivity gave the greatest heat transfer enhancement for a given electrical power input. The required electrical power to achieve a specified heat transfer enhancement was greater for working fluids that had a small charge relaxation time, defined as the ratio of the electrical permittivity to the electrical conductivity. These results correlate well with available experimental and analytical data. A theoretical prediction of the effect of fluid properties and forced flow rate on the onset of EHD enhancement was experimentally verified. The onset of significant EHD heat transfer enhancement occurs most readily in low viscosity liquids at low Reynolds number flows for a given electrical power input.     

Three-dimensional analysis of fluid flow and heat transfer in single- and two-layered micro-channel heat sinks

A three-dimensional numerical analysis of laminar fluid flow and conjugate heat transfer has been conducted for single- and two-layered micro-channel heat sinks. The validity of the numerical model has been confirmed by comparison with available experimental data. Results for the overall thermal resistance, pumping power, the maximum temperature difference on the heat-sink surface where the heat flux is applied, and an overall performance parameter were obtained for single- and two-layered sinks. The effects of Reynolds number, inlet velocity profile, and flow arrangement in the channels (parallel and counter) on these results are presented and discussed. A special emphasis was placed on the comparison between the thermal performances of the parallel and counter flow arrangements and further results were obtained in order to quantify and explain the relative performance under these flow arrangements.