Pressure drop, heat transfer and performance of single-phase turbulent flow in spirally corrugated tubes

The paper presents the results of an experimental study that was carried out to determine turbulent friction and heat transfer characteristics of four spirally corrugated tubes, which have various geometrical parameters, with water and oil as the working fluids. Experiments were performed under conditions of Reynolds number varying from 6000 to 93,000 for water, and from 3200 to 19,000 for oil, respectively. The results show that the thermal performance of these tubes was superior compared to a smooth tube, but the heat transfer enhancements were not as large as the friction factor increases. Friction factors and heat transfer coefficient in these rough tubes were analyzed on the basis of momentum and heat transfer analogy, and the correlations obtained were compared with the present data and also the results of previous investigators. A mathematical model to evaluate the performance of spirally corrugated tube, which takes account of the large variation of fluid Prandtl number with temperature, was developed by the extension of previous work of Bergles and Webb. The results reported enable practical designs with standard products and optimization of tube geometry for specific conditions.     

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.     

An extension of the second moment closure model for turbulent flows over macro rough walls

An advanced second moment closure for rough wall turbulence is proposed. In contrast to previously proposed models relying on an empirical correlation based on equivalent sand grain roughness, the proposed model mathematically derives roughness effects by applying spatial and Reynolds averaging to the governing equations. The additional terms in the momentum equations are the drag force and inhomogeneous roughness density terms. The drag force term is modeled with respect to the plane porosity and plane hydraulic diameter. The two-component limit pressure-strain model is applied to the additional pressure-strain term, which is related to the external force terms. An evaluation of turbulence over surfaces with randomly distributed semi-spheres confirms that the developed model reasonably reproduces the effects of roughness on mean velocity, Reynolds stress, and energy dissipation. Turbulence over rough surfaces of marine paint is also simulated to assess the predictive performance for higher Reynolds number turbulent flows over real rough surfaces. The developed model successfully reproduces the dependence of the Reynolds number on roughness effects. Moreover, qualitative agreement of the skin friction increase with the experimental data is confirmed.     

The effect of a systematic change in surface roughness skewness on turbulence and drag

Previous work by the authors (Flack and Schultz, 2010) has identified the root-mean-square roughness height, k_rms, and the skewness, Sk, of the surface elevation distribution as important parameters in scaling the skin-friction drag on rough surfaces. In this study, three surfaces are tested in turbulent boundary layer flow at a friction Reynolds number, Re_τ = 1600–2200. All the surfaces have similar root-mean-square roughness height, while the skewness is varied. Measurements are presented using both two-component LDV and PIV. The results show the anticipated trend of increasing skin-friction drag with increasing skewness. The largest increase in drag occurs going from negative skewness to zero skewness with a more modest increase going from zero to positive skewness. Some differences in the mean velocity and Reynolds stress profiles are observed for the three surfaces. However, these differences are confined to a region close to the rough surface, and the mean velocity and Reynolds stress profiles collapse away from the wall when scaled in outer variables. The turbulence structure as documented through two-point spatial correlations of velocity is also observed to be very similar over the three surfaces. These results support Townsend’s (1976) concept of outer-layer similarity that the wall boundary condition exerts no direct influence on the turbulence structure away from the wall except in setting the velocity and length scales for the outer layer.     

An intermittency model for predicting roughness induced transition

An intermittency transport equation for RANS modeling, formulated in local variables, is extended for roughness-induced transition. To predict roughness effects in the fully turbulent boundary layer, published boundary conditions for k and ω are used. They depend on the equivalent sand-grain roughness height, and account for the effective displacement of wall distance origin. Similarly in our approach, wall distance in the transition model for smooth surfaces is modified by an effective origin, which depends on equivalent sand-grain roughness. Flat plate test cases are computed to show that the proposed model is able to predict transition onset in agreement with a data correlation of transition location versus roughness height, Reynolds number, and inlet turbulence intensity. Experimental data for turbine cascades are compared to the predicted results to validate the proposed model.     

Flow and heat transfer performance of a mini-channel radiator with cylinder disturbed flow

Mini-channel heat sinks have relatively low Nusselt number due to small Reynolds number. For heat transfer enhancement purpose, a mini-channel radiator with cylinder disturbed flow was proposed. The disturbed flow was created by a circular cylinder placed horizontally in front of channels entrance. The performance of heat transfer and pressure drop with/without disturbed flow was studied experimentally. It was found that the friction factor of mini-channel flow was larger than that of the macro-channel flow due to larger surface roughness, and the pressure drop caused by cylinder disturbed flow was less than 5%. It also concluded that the average Nusselt number increases with augment of Reynolds and Prandtl number. The Nusselt number correlations as the function of the Reynolds and Prandtl number were given for evaluation the heat removal performance of similar heat radiators. There is an inflexion point in the empirical formulas when the channel length equals to the thermal entrance length. For the mini-channels heat radiators with disturbed flow, the inflexion Reynolds number is larger than that of without disturbed flow. Due to the flow pulsing caused by circular cylinder placed in front of channels entrance, the thermal entrance length increases. On the other hand, for both mini-channels with or without disturbed flow, the thermal resistance increases with the decrease of pressure drop.     

Der Einfluß der Prandtlzahl auf den Wärmeübergang und Druckverlust künstlich aufgerauhter Strömungskanäle

The influence of the Prandtl number on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of artificially roughened test sections has been investigated experimentally in the Prandtl number range from 3 to 180. For integral roughenesses and fully roughened test sections the efficiency η=ε _Nu /ε _ζ can be described by the Prandtl number and the roughness parameter \(k_{\text{S}}^ + = Re{\text{(}}k_{\text{S}} /d_{\text{h}} )\sqrt \zeta /8\) . The relation between the efficiency η, the Prandtl numberPr and the roughness parameterk _s ⁺ can be expressed by the following empirical relation: $$\eta = \log \frac{{Pr^{{\text{0,33}}} }}{{k_{\text{S}}^{ + {\text{ 0,243}}} }} - 0,32 \cdot 10^{ - 3} k_{\text{S}}^ + {\text{ log }}Pr + {\text{1,25}}{\text{.}}$$ With this relation for the heat transfer and friction characteristics of smooth and rough channels it is possible to calculate the increase of heat transfer for rough channels by means of pressure drop measurements which are necessary to determine the friction factor ζ and the equivalent sand roughness depth; provided that heat transfer and friction characteristics of the respective smooth channel are known.     

Laboratory investigation and commercial test for rotors-assembled strand applied in smooth tube

In the commercial test for smooth tube inserted with rotors-assembled strand comparing with non-inserted ones on condensers in electric power plant, using water as working fluid, the single-phase pressure drop and heat transfer were measured. It was found difficult to receive reliable and accurate enough data through commercial test. Meanwhile, the single-phase pressure drop and heat transfer in a rotors-assembled strand inserted tube were measured in laboratory, with the tube side Prandtl numbers varying from 5.67 to 5.80 and the tube side Reynolds numbers varying from 21,300 to 72,200. Before that, a validation experiment based on the same smooth tube was carried out to testify the experimental system and the data reduction method, in which fixed mounts were employed to eliminate entrance effects. The Prandtl numbers varied from 5.64 to 5.76 and the Reynolds numbers varied from 19,000 to 56,000 in the tube. The annular side Reynolds numbers remained nearly constant at the value of around 50,000 for all experiments, with the annular side Prandtl numbers varying from 8.02 to 8.22. The experimental results of smooth tube show that employment of fixed mounts leads to a visible bias of friction factor at relative low Reynolds numbers while it hardly affects the Nusselt numbers. On the other hand, experiment for the tube inserted with rotors-assembled strand show remarkable improvement for heat transfer with the Nusselt number increased by 9.764–11.87% and the overall heat transfer coefficient increased by 7.08–7.49% within the range of Reynolds number from about 21,300 to 55,500. Meanwhile, friction factor increases inevitably by 278.1–353.9% within the same range of Reynolds number. Based on through multivariant linear normal regression method, the Reynolds number and Prandtl number dependencies of the Nusselt number and friction factor were determined to be Nu = 0.0031Re^0.9Pr^1.0849 and f = 0.993Re^−0.22.     

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.     

Investigation of generalized Fick’s and Fourier’s laws in the second-grade fluid flow

The second-grade fluid flow due to a rotating porous stretchable disk is modeled and analyzed. A porous medium is characterized by the Darcy relation. The heat and mass transport are characterized through Cattaneo-Christov double diffusions. The thermal and solutal stratifications at the surface are also accounted. The relevant nonlinear ordinary differential systems after using appropriate transformations are solved for the solutions with the homotopy analysis method (HAM). The effects of various involved variables on the temperature, velocity, concentration, skin friction, mass transfer rate, and heat transfer rate are discussed through graphs. From the obtained results, decreasing tendencies for the radial, axial, and tangential velocities are observed. Temperature is a decreasing function of the Reynolds number, thermal relaxation parameter, and Prandtl number. Moreover, the mass diffusivity decreases with the Schmidt number.     

Investigation of the heat transfer and Reynolds analogy in a turbulent boundary layer at a high freestream turbulence level

The results of a systematic experimental study of the flow turbulence level effect on the heat transfer and Reynolds analogy coefficients over a wide range of the relevant parameters (the turbulence intensity and scale and the Reynolds number) are presented. The notion of the equivalent flow turbulence, which unifies the above-mentioned parameters, is introduced. It is established that the skin friction and heat transfer coefficients increase with the equivalent turbulence, while the Reynolds analogy coefficient remains unchanged. Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 61–71, January–February, 2000.     

Heat transfer and fluid flow analysis of artificially roughened ducts having rib and groove roughness

Artificially roughness is one of the well known methods of enhancing heat transfer from the heat transfer surface in the form of repeated ribs, grooves or combination of ribs and groove (compound turbulators). The artificial roughness produced on the heat transferring surface is used in cooling of gas turbine blades, nuclear reactor, solar air heating systems etc. Solar air heaters have wide applications in low to moderate temperature range, namely, drying of foods, agricultural crops, seasoning of wood and space heating etc. Solar air heaters have low value of convective heat transfer coefficient between the working fluid (air) and the heat transferring surface, due to the formation of thin laminar viscous sub-layer on its surface. The heat transfer from the surface can be increased by breaking this laminar viscous sub layer. Hence, in the present work compound turbulators in the form of integral wedge shaped ribs with grooves are used on the heat transfer surface, to study its effect on the heat transfer coefficient (Nusselt number) and friction factor in the range of Reynolds number 3,000–18,000. The roughness produced on the absorber plate forms the wetted side of upper broad wall of the rectangular duct of solar air heater. The relative groove position (g/p) was varied from 0.4 to 0.8 and the wedge angle (Φ) was varied from 10° to 25°, relative roughness pitch (p/e) and relative roughness height (e/D) was maintained as 8.0 and 0.033 respectively. The aspect ratio of the rectangular duct was maintained as 8. The Nusselt number and friction factor of the artificially roughened ducts were determined experimentally and the corresponding values were compared with that of smooth surface duct. It is observed that wedge-groove roughened surface shows more enhancement in heat transfer compared to only rib roughened surface arrangement. The investigation revealed that Nusselt number increases 1.5–3 times, while the friction factor increases two to three folds that of the smooth surface duct in the range of operating parameters. It is also observed that in rib–groove roughness arrangement with relative groove position of 0.65 shows the maximum enhancement in the heat transfer compared to the other rib-groove roughness arrangements. Statistical correlations for the Nusselt number and friction factor have been developed by the regression method in terms of the operating and roughness parameters. A program was also developed in MATLAB for the calculation of thermal efficiency and thermal effectiveness. It was observed that the thermal efficiency is more for wedge angle of 15° and relative groove position of 0.65 and its value ranges from 42 to 73 %. The uncertainties in the measurements due to various instruments for the Reynolds number, Nusselt number, and friction factor have been estimated as ±3.8, ±4.54 and ±7.6 % respectively in the range of investigation made.     

Prediction of the interfacial shear-stress in vertical annular flow

Many improvements of the Wallis correlation for the interfacial friction in annular flow have been proposed in the literature. These improvements give in general a better fit to data, however, their physical basis is not always justified. In this work, we present a physical approach to predict the interfacial shear-stress, based on the theory on roughness in single-phase turbulent pipe flows. Using measured interfacial shear-stress data and measured data on roll waves, which provide most of the contribution to the liquid film roughness, we show that the interfacial shear-stress in vertical annular flow is in very close agreement with the theory. We show that the sand-grain roughness of the liquid film is not equal to four times the mean film thickness, as it is assumed in the Wallis correlation. Instead, the sand-grain roughness is proportional to the wave height, and the proportionality constant can be predicted accurately using the roughness density (or solidity). Furthermore, we show that our annular flow, which is in similar conditions to others in the literature, is fully rough. Hence, the bulk Reynolds number should not appear in the prediction of the interfacial friction coefficient, as is often done in the improvements of the Wallis correlation proposed in the literature.     

Breakdown of the Reynolds Analogy in a Stagnation Region Under Inflow Disturbances

A systematic analysis is performed for the Reynolds analogy breakdown at stagnation-region flow and heat transfer in the presence of inflow disturbances. The Reynolds analogy breakdown between momentum and energy transfers in a stagnation region is scrutinized by varying the Reynolds number (5000≤Re≤20000), the amplitude (0.00075≤A≤0.003) and the length scale (λ/δ=10.6). A spanwise sinusoidal variation is superimposed on the velocity component normal to the wall. Self-similarity solutions are obtained with trigonometric series expansions. The Reynolds analogy criterion demonstrates that the rate of change of skin friction is different from that of wall heat transfer. Different evolutions of the rates of skin friction and wall heat transfer are due to the difference between 〈s'v'〉 and 〈v'T'〉. An in-depth analysis on 〈s'v'〉 and 〈 v'T'〉 is performed by analysis using disturbance correlations based on the fluctuating velocity transport equations in vorticity form. It is found that the pressure fluctuations, the wall blocking and the Lamb vectors are responsible for the breakdown of the Reynolds analogy. A direct comparison is made between momentum and energy balances associated with the three responsible mechanisms. A common finding is that their profiles are changed significantly at a location where the evolution of the streamwise vortex is strong. Received 12 May 2000 and accepted 6 March 2001     

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.     

Heat transfer and interfacial drag in countercurrent steam-water stratified flow

Local condensation heat transfer coefficients and interfacial shear stresses have been measured for countercurrent stratified flow of steam and subcooled water in rectangular channels over a wide range of inclination angles (4–87°) at two aspect ratios. Dimensionless correlations for the interfacial friction factor have been developed that show that it is a function of the liquid Reynolds number only. Empirical correlations of the heat transfer coefficient, based upon the bulk flow properties, have also been set up for the whole body of data encompassing the different inclination angles and aspect ratios. These indicate that the Froude number as a dimensionless gas velocity is a better correlating parameter than the gas Reynolds number. As an alternative approach, a simple dimensionless relationship for the beat transfer coefficient was obtained by analogy between heat and momentum transfer through the interface. Finally, a turbulence-centered model has been modified by using measured interfacial parameters for the turbulent velocity and length scales, resulting in good agreement with the data.     

Radiation effects on combined convection over a vertical flat plate embedded in a porous medium of variable porosity

The present paper is concerned with the study of radiation effects on the combined (forced-free) convection flow of an optically dense viscous incompressible fluid over a vertical surface embedded in a fluid saturated porous medium of variable porosity with heat generation or absorption. The effects of radiation heat transfer from a porous wall on convection flow are very important in high temperature processes. The inclusion of radiation effects in the energy equation leads to a highly non-linear partial differential equations which are transformed to a system of ordinary differential equations using non-similarity transformation. These equations are then solved numerically using implicit finite-difference method subject to appropriate boundary and matching conditions. A parametric study of the physical parameters such as the particle diameter-based Reynolds number, the flow based Reynolds number, the Grashof number, the heat generation or absorption co-efficient and radiation parameter is conducted on temperature distribution. The effects of radiation and other physical parameters on the local skin friction and on local Nusselt number are shown graphically. It is interesting to observe that the momentum and thermal boundary layer thickness increases with the radiation and decrease with increase in the Prandtl number.     

Heat transfer and friction factor of turbulent flow through a horizontal semi-circular duct

Forced convection heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of air flow inside a horizontal semi-circular duct are investigated experimentally. The experiments are carried out on a semi-circular duct of 23 mm inner radius, 2 mm thickness, and 2,000 mm length within a range of Reynolds number (8,242 ≤ Re ≤ 57,794)., under uniform wall heat flux conditions. The friction factor is determined by measuring the axial static pressure at different selected axial stations along the semi-circular duct. The variations of surface and mean air temperatures, local heat transfer coefficient, local Nusselt number, and the friction factor with the axial dimensionless distance are presented. It is observed that, for a given value of Reynolds number, each of the local heat transfer coefficient and the friction factor has a relatively high value near the entrance of the semi-circular duct then it decreases with increasing the dimensionless axial distance until it approaches a nearly constant value at the fully developed region. Also, it is found that, with increasing the Reynolds number the average heat transfer coefficient is increased and the friction factor is decreased. Moreover, empirical correlations for the heat transfer coefficient and friction factor as a function of the Reynolds number are obtained.     

Die turbulente Grenzschicht an einer stark geheizten ebenen Platte bei Unterschallströmung

Experiments for air flowing over a flat plate heated up to 250°C with velocities of 10 to 30 m/s, which have been made at the DFVLR-AVA, are briefly reviewed and a new analysis of the data is given. The analysis is based on an analytical representation of the velocity and temperature profiles. Close to the wall, a law of the wall approximation is used, which includes the effect of density and viscosity variation. The whole velocity profile is constructed by adding Coles' law of the wake to the law of the wall. In a similar way, the temperature profile is obtained from the law of the wall and an auxiliary distribution. The integrals of momentum and heat flux for two-dimensional flow are used in conjunction with a similarity assumption, to derive a relation between rate of heat transfer from the plate and skin friction. A maximum likelihood procedure has been applied to determine skin friction and rate of heat transfer from the measured dynamic pressure profiles.—The analytical velocity and temperature profiles are found in good agreement with the experimental data, except for the stations near the leading edge of plate. The skin friction coefficients and the Stanton numbers decrease slightly in downstream direction as a consequence of growing local Reynolds number, and decrease with increasing ratio of plate to free stream temperature. The latter fact is in qualitative agreement with the behavior of turbulent boundary layers in supersonic flow. The ratio of Stanton number to half of skin friction coefficient (Reynolds analogy factor) varies with increasing local boundary layer Reynolds number from 1.23 to 1.16.     

Outer flow scaling of smooth and rough wall turbulent boundary layers

Mean velocity profiles in a zero pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer were measured on a hydraulically smooth surface and three different rough surfaces created from sand paper, perforated plate, and woven wire mesh. The physical size and geometry of the roughness elements were chosen to encompass both transitionally and fully rough flow regimes. The mean velocity profiles were measured using a Pitot tube in a subsonic wind tunnel, for Reynolds numbers (based on momentum thickness) ranging from 3,730 to 12,260. Three different outer velocity scales were used to analyze the defect profile. The results show that application of a so called mixed outer scale causes the velocity profile in the outer region to collapse onto the same curve for different Reynolds numbers and roughness conditions. Although the mixed scale collapses defect profiles on different surfaces, the effect of surface roughness is still observed in the outer region.