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.     

Three-dimensional numerical investigation of heat transfer for plate fin heat exchangers

In the present study, the potential of rectangular fins with 30° and 90° angle and 10 mm offset from the horizontal direction for heat transfer enhancement in a plate fin heat exchanger is numerically evaluated with conjugated heat transfer approach. The rectangular fins are mounted on the flat plate channel. The numerical computations are performed by solving a steady, three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equation and an energy equation by using Fluent software program. Air is taken as working fluid. The study is carried out at Re = 400 and inlet temperatures, velocities of cold and hot air are fixed as 300, 600 K and 1.338, 0.69 m/s, respectively. Colburn factor j versus Re design data is presented by using Fluent. The results show that the heat transfer is increased by 10 % at the exit of channel with fin angle of 30° when compared to channel without fin for counter flow. The heat transfer enhancement with fins of 30° and 90° for different values of Reynolds number with 300, 500 and 800 and for varying fin heights, fin intervals and also temperature distributions of fluids on the top and bottom surface of the channel are investigated for parallel and counter flow.     

An experimental investigation of heat transfer characteristics for turbulent flow over staggered ribs in a square duct

An experimental study of developing and fully developed turbulent air flow in a square duct with two opposite rib-roughened walls in which the ribs are attached in a staggered fashion was conducted to determine the heat transfer characteristics. The rib height-to-hydraulic diameter ratio (e/D_H) was 0.19, the rib pitch-to-height ratio (p/e) was 5.31. The streamwise temperature distribution was measured, and a law of the wall for the thermal boundary layer at each free-stream turbulence level was obtained. The effects of free-stream turbulence intensity with variations of 4–11% on heat transfer coefficients were also examined. Finally, the relationship between Nusselt number and Reynolds number was correlated. The results might be used in the design of turbine blade cooling channels.     

Experimental study of convective heat transfer from a rotating finned tube in transverse air flow

 The convective heat transfer from fins to air has been evaluated using rotating annular fins subjected to an air flow parallel to the fins. The fin cooling is studied using infrared thermography. The thermal balance in a fin during its cooling process allows us to obtain the heat transfer coefficient from the temperature time evolution of the fin. Moreover, Particle Image Velocimetry allows us to obtain the flow field in the mid-plane between two fins. The influence of the fin spacing on the convective heat transfer is studied for various velocities of the superposed air flow and various fin rotational speeds. These tests were carried out for air flow Reynolds numbers (based on the shaft diameter and the velocity of the superposed air flow) between 2550 and 18200 and rotational Reynolds numbers (based on the shaft diameter and the peripheral speed) between 800 and 2.9 × 10⁴, for different fin spacings. Received: 14 May 1999/Accepted: 8 October 1999     

An experimental investigation of heat transfer and flow friction characteristics of louvered fin surfaces by the modified single blow technique

This paper describes the development of an experimental facility to determine the heat transfer and flow friction characteristics of heat exchange surfaces by the modified single blow technique and the application of this transient technique to evaluate the performance characteristics of louvered fin heat exchangers. The reliability of implementing the modified single blow technique on the developed test facility is borne out by the good agreement in the heat transfer and flow friction data for the parallel plate test core when compared with theoretical and empirical correlations available in the literature. Performance evaluation of two louvered fin surfaces used mainly for cooling of large land and marine based electrical power generator sets is carried out and compared with similar louvered fin surfaces available in the literature. On the basis of dimensionless area and power factors, it was found that the flat fin is slightly superior in overall performance than its corrugated counterpart for low Reynolds numbers. Both surfaces are however inferior in performance when compared with the flat fin surface of Achaichia and Cowell and the corrugated fin surface of Davenport. Use of the j/f ratio as an approximate figure of merit led to an inaccurate assessment of the performance of the louvered fin heat exchanger surfaces evaluated in this study. Received on 8 May 1998     

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     

A experimental investigation of turbulent flow and heat transfer in elliptical duets

Fully developed turbulent flow and heat transfer to air and water in ducts of elliptical cross section have been investigated experimentally. For the ducts of aspect ratio 2.5 1 and larger, a reduction in the overall heat transfer rate was found in the lower turbulent Reynold's number range (Re<25,000). Similar effects have been noted by investigators of narrow triangular cross sections where flow measurements indicated the possible co-existence of laminar and turbulent flow resulting in localised increases in thermal resistance. It was found that the analogy between momentum and heat transfer could not be applied directly to the larger aspect ratio ducts where significant circumferential variations of wall temperature occurred.

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Zusammenfassung Voll entwickelte turbulente Strömung und Wärmeübertragung an Luft und Wasser in elliptischen Kanälen wurden experimentell untersucht. Für Kanäle mit Achsenverhältnissen von 2,5 1 und größer fand man eine Verringerung des Wärmedurchgangs im Bereich geringer Reynolds-Zahlen (Re < 25 000). Ähnliche Effekte waren von anderen Autoren in engen Dreieckskanälen gefunden worden, wobei man aus Strömungsmessungen das gleichzeitige Auftreten von laminarer und turbulenter Strömung mit örtlicher Zunahme des thermischen Widerstandes folgern konnte. Die Analogie zwischen Impuls- und Wärmeübertragung konnte nicht unmittelbar auf Kanäle mit großem Achsenverhältnis, bei denen die Umfangstemperatur beträchtlich variierte, angewendet werden.

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Nomenclature A cross-sectional area - b duct wall thickness - C_p specific heat at constant pressure - d_e equivalent diameter of noncircular cross-section (=4A/p) - f Fanning friction coefficient - h local heat transfer coefficient (=q_w/(T_w-T_b)) - ¯h average circumferential heat transfer coefficient - k thermal conductivity of fluid - k_w thermal conductivity of wall material - K^* wall conductivity parameter (= k_wb/kd_e) - p wetted perimeter - q_w wall heat flux - T_b bulk fluid temperature - T_w local wall temperature - absolute viscosity - kinematic viscosity (=/) - mass density - Nu Nusselt number (= h d_e/k) - Nu average circumferential Nusselt number (= ¯h d_e/k) - Pr Prandtl number (= C_p/k) - Re Reynolds number (= d_e/) - St Stanton number (= Nu/Re · Pr)     

Turbulent flow structure and heat transfer in an inclined bubbly flow. Experimental and numerical investigation

The effect of channel inclination on the variation in the wall shear stress and the heat transfer in a two-phase bubbly flow in a rectangular channel is experimentally and numerically investigated. The wall friction was measured using the electrodiffusion method and the temperature was measured by tiny platinum resistance thermometers. The model is based on the system of RANS equations with account for the back influence of the bubbles on the flow characteristics. Flow turbulence is calculated according to the model of transport of the Reynolds stress tensor components. It is shown that in the gas-liquid flow the angle of the channel inclination to the horizon can have a considerable effect on the friction and the heat transfer. The greatest friction and heat transfer values correspond to the angles of channel inclination ranging from 30 to 50°. In the inclined two-phase bubbly flow the shear stress enhancement on the wall amounts to 30% and that of the heat transfer to 15%. A friction and heat transfer reduction to 10 and 25%, respectively, is noticed in near-horizontal flows.     

Optimization of heat transfer through finned dissipators cooled by laminar flow

In the present work, the problem of optimizing the shape and the spacing of the fins of a thermal dissipator cooled by a fluid in laminar flow is studied. For a particular finned conduit, the velocity and temperature distributions on the transversal section are determined with the help of a finite element model and a global heat transfer coefficient is calculated. A polynomial lateral profile is proposed for the fins and the geometry is optimized in order to make the heat transfer coefficient as high as possible with the smallest dimensions or the lowest hydraulic resistance to the flow. The optimum fin profile and spacing, obtained by means of a genetic algorithm, are finally shown for different situations. Increases of 45% are obtained in the heat transfer coefficient referring to the maximum values which can be obtained with rectangular fin profiles.     

An experimental investigation on flow structures of confined and unconfined impinging air jets

The flow characteristics of both confined and unconfined air jets, impinging normally onto a flat plate have been experimentally investigated. The mean and turbulence velocities, and surface pressures were measured for Reynolds numbers ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 and the nozzle-to-plate spacings in range of 0.2–6. Smoke-wire technique is used to visualize the flow behavior. The effects of Reynolds number, nozzle-to-plate spacing and flow confinement on the flow structure are reported. In the case of confined jet, subatmospheric regions occur on both impingement and confinement surfaces at nozzle-to-plate spacings up to 2 for all Reynolds numbers in consideration and they lie up to nearly the same radial location at both surfaces. However, there is no evidence of the subatmospheric region in unconfined jet. It is concluded that there exists a linkage among the subatmospheric region, turbulence intensity and the peaks in heat transfer coefficients for low spacings in impinging jets.     

An experimental and numerical investigation of fluid flow in a cross-corrugated channel

The hydraulic performance of fluid in a cross-corrugated channel has been investigated, numerically and experimentally, by a three-dimensional model with an exact geometry of the heat exchanger. The distributions of the fluid and local flow characteristics have been discussed, especially for the flow around the contact points in the developing and periodic fully developed sections. The velocity and pressure variations in different cross sections have also been presented. Experiments have been carried out to validate the numerical predictions. The friction factors between the numerical computation and the experimental data are in a reasonable agreement in the range of Reynolds number being equal to 660–2,000.     

Experimental and numerical heat transfer investigation of an impingement jet array with V-ribs on the target plate and on the impingement plate

The secondary vortex structure of an impingement jet system is enhanced by V-ribs on both the impingement and target plates. Numerical and experimental investigations are conducted to study the flow field and heat transfer resulting from V-rib turbulators in an impingement cooling configuration. Three different cases are tested: V-ribs on both the impingement and target plates (V-rib), V-ribs only on the impingement plate (V-rib-impingement) and V-ribs only on the target plate (V-rib-target). The experiment is carried out on a 9 by 9 inline impingement array test facility. For the transient measurements, narrow band thermochromic liquid crystals (TLC) and thermocouples are applied to obtain the local heat transfer distribution. Pressure taps are used to measure the pressure loss. The numerical simulation is carried out with ANSYS CFX 14, using a steady state Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach and the Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model. All studies are done for a Reynolds number range of 15,000 to 35,000. There is a good overall agreement between the experimental and numerical results for the cases studied. The detailed flow field from the numerical simulation is used to understand and complement the phenomena observed in the experiment. The evaluation of the flow field confirms that the V-ribs enhance the secondary flow structure in the impingement system and induce a positive heat flux ratio compared to the baseline case. Both experimental and numerical results show a Nusselt number increase for the V-rib-impingement and V-rib configuration, with a highest Nusselt number ratio of 1.16. Notice that the experiment cannot take the rib part into account due to the invalid 1D semi-infinite wall assumption there, while the CFD simulation allows for the consideration of heat transfer on the rib surface and thus complements the heat flux data on the target plate. Depending on the configuration, the CFD simulation shows a heat flux ratio of 1.06–1.34. The pressure loss of the system is comparable to the case with a smooth impingement plate and a smooth target plate.     

Laminar heat transfer in parallel plate flow

An exact solution for the fluid temperature due to laminar heat transfer in parallel plate flow is found. The formulas obtained are valid for an arbitrary velocity profile. The basic problem encountered involves finding certain expansion coefficients in a series of nonorthogonal eigenfunctions. This problem is solved by passing to a vector system of equations having orthogonal eigenvectors. The method is applicable to more general problems.     

Quantitative infrared investigation of local heat transfer in a circular finned tube heat exchanger assembly

This work deals with the local heat transfer coefficient evaluation over the fin of the second row of a staggered circular finned tube heat exchanger assembly. The coefficient distribution is determined by using a transient technique and by calculating the energy balance during the fin cooling. The calculation model takes into account radiation with the surrounding and lateral heat conduction into the material. The method uses infrared measurements and integration between time bounds that depend on space. It is proposed to choose the integration bounds with an original criterion based on local heat transfer. Validation is performed on the reference case consisting in a thin plate in an aerodynamically and thermally developing channel flow. Then, distributions of Nusselt number on the circular fin are presented for several Reynolds numbers. The high resolution of the whole method and set-up allow detecting thermal imprints of developing horseshoe vortices. These imprints are analyzed by following their angular evolution around the tube.     

An experimental investigation of the effect of waves on vapour side heat and mass transfer in filmwise condensation inside a vertical tube

The effect of liquid Reynolds number in condensation of a single vapour from a non-condensing gas has been investigated experimentally. It is apparent that there is no significant enhancement of the heat and mass transfer coefficients on the vapour side up to a liquid film Reynolds number of 200 and a gas Reynolds number of 14,000 in a vertical tube of length 1 metre.     

Investigation of flow and heat transfer in corrugated-undulated plate heat exchangers

 An experimental and numerical investigation of heat transfer and fluid flow was conducted for corrugated-undulated plate heat exchanger configurations under transitional and weakly turbulent conditions. For a given geometry of the corrugated plates the geometrical characteristics of the undulated plates, the angle formed by the latter with the main flow direction, and the Reynolds number were made to vary. Distributions of the local heat transfer coefficient were obtained by using liquid-crystal thermography, and surface-averaged values were computed; friction coefficients were measured by wall pressure tappings. Overall heat transfer and pressure drop correlations were derived. Three-dimensional numerical simulations were conducted by a finite-volume method using a low-Reynolds number k–ɛ model under the assumption of fully developed flow. Computed flow fields provided otherwise inaccessible information on the flow patterns and the mechanisms of heat transfer enhancement. Received on 5 February 1999     

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     

3D numerical simulation on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in multistage heat exchanger with slit fins

In this paper, a numerical investigation is performed for three-stage heat exchangers with plain plate fins and slit fins respectively, with a three-dimensional laminar conjugated model. The tubes are arranged in a staggered way, and heat conduction in fins is considered. In order to save the computer resource and speed up the numerical simulation, the numerical modeling is carried out stage by stage. In order to avoid the large pressure drop penalty in enhancing heat transfer, a slit fin is presented with the strip arrangement of “front coarse and rear dense” along the flow direction. The numerical simulation shows that, compared to the plain plate fin heat exchanger, the increase in the heat transfer in the slit fin heat exchanger is higher than that of the pressure drop, which proves the excellent performance of this slit fin. The fluid flow and heat transfer performance along the stages is also provided.