Numerical study of laminar fluid flow in a curved elliptic duct with internal fins

The fully developed laminar incompressible flow inside a curved duct of elliptical cross-section with four thin, internal longitudinal fins is studied using the improved CVP method. We present numerical results for the friction factor and an investigation of the effect of the fin height and the Dean number on the flow. It is found that the friction factor increases for large fins and for high Dean numbers and that in some cases, it has a strong dependence on the cross-sectional aspect ratio. The thermal results show that the heat transfer rate is enhanced by the internal fins and that it depends on the aspect ratio.     

The Use of Porous Fins for Heat Transfer Augmentation in Parallel-Plate Channels

In this study, a steady, fully developed laminar forced convection heat augmentation via porous fins in isothermal parallel-plate duct is numerically investigated. High-thermal conductivity porous fins are attached to the inner walls of two parallel-plate channels to enhance the heat transfer characteristics of the flow under consideration. The Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model is used to model the flow inside the porous fins. This study reports the effect of several operating parameters on the flow hydrodynamics and thermal characteristics. This study demonstrates, mainly, the effects of porous fin thickness, Darcy number, thermal conductivity ratio, Reynolds number, and microscopic inertial coefficient on the thermal performance of the present flow. It is found that the highest Nusselt number is achieved at fully filled porous duct which requires the highest pumping pressure. The results show that using porous fins requires less pumping pressure with comparable high heat augmentation weight against fully filled porous duct. It is found that higher Nusselt numbers are achieved by increasing the microscopic inertial coefficient (A), the Reynolds number (Re), and the thermal conductivity of the porous substrate k ₂. The results show that heat transfer can be enhanced (1) with the use of high thermal conductivity fins, (2) by decreasing the Darcy number, and (3) by increasing microscopic inertial coefficient.     

Heat transfer for non-Newtonian laminar flow in internally finned pipes with uniform temperature

An analysis is presented for fully developed laminar convective heat transfer of non-Newtonian power-law fluids in pipes with internal longitudinal fins and uniform outside wall temperature. The governing momentum and energy equations have been solved numerically, with the influence of fin conductance. The distributions of fin temperature, fluid temperature and local heat flux (both at finned and unfinned surfaces) are presented. These are shown to be strongly dependent on finned pipe geometry, fluid flow behavior index and the fin conductance. Values of overall Nusselt number indicated significant heat transfer enhancement over finless pipes. The flow behavior index affects the no. of fins which maximizes the overall Nusselt number.     

Laminar natural convection of Cu-water nanofluid in concentric annuli with radial fins attached to the inner cylinder

Laminar natural convection of Cu-water nano-fluid between two horizontal concentric cylinders with radial fins attached to the inner cylinder is studied numerically. The inner and outer cylinders are maintained at constant temperature. The governing equations in the polar two-dimensional space with the respective boundary conditions are solved using the finite volume method. The hybrid-scheme is used to discretize the convection terms. In order to couple the velocity field and the pressure in the momentum equations, the well known semi-implicit method for pressure linked equation reformed algorithm is adopted. Using the developed code, a parametric study is undertaken, and the effects of the Rayleigh number, Number of fins, length of the fins and the volume fraction of nano-particles on the fluid flow and heat transfer inside the annuli are investigated. In this study, two cases with different number of fins are considered. It is observed from the results that the average Nusselt number increases with increasing both the Rayleigh number and the volume fraction of the nano-particles. Moreover, the average Nusselt number decreases by increasing the fins’ length and the number of fins. Heat transfer rate increases by increasing the fins’ length at all Rayleigh numbers, but it increases by increasing the number of fins at high Rayleigh numbers.     

Natural Convection Heat Transfer Augmentation Factor with Square Conductive Pin Fin Arrays

Natural convection heat transfer from a vertical isothermal plate with pin fins is numerically studied by solving the Navier–Stokes equations along with the energy equation. The average Nusselt number for the plate with different configurations of pin fins is obtained. The average Nusselt number is found to increase with increasing aspect ratio of the fin and to decrease with increasing angle of fin inclination with respect to the plate. There is only a minor difference between the average Nusselt numbers for in-line and staggered arrangement of fins for the range of parameters studied in the present work. A correlation is developed to predict the average Nusselt number of the plate as a function of fin spacing in the streamwise and spanwise directions, aspect ratio of the fin, and its angle of inclination.     

Laminar mixed convection in horizontal concentric annuli with non-uniform circumferential heating

 Steady, laminar, mixed convection in the fully developed region of horizontal concentric annuli has been investigated numerically for the case of non-uniform circumferential heating. Two heating conditions were studied, one in which a 180^∘ arc encompassing the top half of inner surface of the inner cylinder is uniformly heated while the bottom half is kept insulated, and the other in which the heated and the insulated surfaces were reversed. The fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics were found to be affected by the heating conditions. For the investigated range of the governing buoyancy parameter, the modified Grashof number (Gr^*), it was found that bottom heating arrangement gives rise to a vigorous secondary flow, with the result that the average Nusselt numbers are much higher than those for pure forced convection. On the other hand, the local Nusselt numbers are nearly circumferentially uniform. In the case of top heating arrangement, a less vigorous secondary flow is induced because of temperature stratification, with average Nusselt numbers that are substantially lower than those for bottom heating and with large circumferential variation of the local Nusselt number. Received on 15 March 2000     

Laminar forced convection with sinusoidal wall heat flux distribution: axially periodic regime

Stationary and laminar forced convection in a circular tube with a sinusoidal axial distribution of wall heat flux is studied under the hypothesis that both axial heat conduction and viscous dissipation in the fluid are negligible. Two cases are considered: a sinusoidal wall heat flux distribution with a vanishing mean value; a sinusoidal wall heat flux distribution which does not change its sign. In both cases, the temperature field and the local Nusselt number are evaluated analytically in the fully developed region, i.e. where the local Nusselt number depends periodically on the axial coordinate. It is shown that, in the first case, the fully developed region presents an infinite sequence of axial positions where the local Nusselt number is singular. In these positions, the wall heat flux has a non-vanishing value even if the wall temperature equals the bulk temperature.     

Laminar heat transfer characteristics of internally finned tube with sinusoidal wavy fin

Comparative numerical study of laminar heat transfer characteristics of annular tubes with sinusoidal wavy fins has been conducted both experimentally and numerically with Re = 299–1,475. The uniform heat flux is imposed on the tube outside wall surface. Two tube materials (copper and stainless steel) are considered. It is found that the fluid temperature profile is not linear but convex along the flow direction due to the axial heat conduction in tube wall, and the effects of axial heat conduction on the heat transfer decreases with an increase in Reynolds number or decrease in tube wall thermal conductivity. The axial distributions of local Nusselt number could reach periodically fully developed after 3–5 cycles. The convectional data reduction method based on the traditional method should be improved for tube with high thermal conductivity or low Reynolds numbers, Otherwise, the heat transfer performance of internally finned tube may be underestimated.     

A criterion for detection of the onset of Dean instability in Newtonian fluids

Dean instability for Newtonian fluids in laminar secondary flow in 180° curved channels was studied experimentally and numerically. The numerical study used Fluent CFD code to solve the Navier–Stokes equations, focusing on flow development conditions and the parameters influencing Dean instability. An accurate criterion based on the radial gradient of the axial velocity was defined that allows detection of the instability threshold, and this criterion is used to optimize the grid geometry. The effects on Dean instability of the curvature ratio (from 5.5 to 20) and aspect ratio (from 0.5 to 12) are studied. In particular, we show that the critical value of the Dean number decreases with the increasing duct curvature ratio. The variation of the critical Dean number with duct aspect ratio is less regular.In the experimental study, flows were visualized in several tangential positions of a 180° curved channel with aspect ratio 8 and curvature ratio 10. The flow is hydrodynamically developed at the entrance to the curved channel. The critical Dean number is detected and the development of secondary flow vortices by additional counter-rotating vortex pairs is observed. A diagram of different critical Dean numbers is established.     

Three-dimensional laminar flow and heat transfer in the entrance region of trapezoidal ducts

The laminar convective flow and heat transfer in a duct with a trapezoidal cross-sectional area are studied numerically. The governing equations are solved numerically by a finite volume formulation in complex three-dimensional geometries using co-located variables and Cartesian velocity components. Details of the numerical method are presented. The accuracy of the method was also established by comparing the calculated results with the analytical and numerical results available in the open literature. The Nusselt numbers are obtained for the boundary condition of a uniform wall temperature whereas the friction factors are calculated for no-slip conditions at the walls. The asymptotic values of the Nusselt numbers, friction factors. incremental pressure drops, axial velocity and momentum rate and kinetic energy correction factors approach the available fully developed values. Various geometrical dimensions of the cross-section are considered.     

Forced convection in tightly coiled ducts: Bifurcation in a high Dean number region

The present numerical study is on the fully developed bifurcation structure of forced convection in a tightly coiled duct of square cross-section and curvature ratio of 0.5 in a high Dean number region. Ten solution branches, two symmetric and eight asymmetric, are found. Among them, one symmetric branch and seven asymmetric branches have not been reported in the literature. On these new branches, the flow has a structural 2-, 4-, 5-, 6-, 7- or 8-cell. The mean friction factor and Nusselt number are different on various solution branches. In tightly coiled ducts, the secondary flow enhances the heat transfer more significantly than the friction increase.     

Fully Developed Forced Convection Heat Transfer in a Porous Channel with Asymmetric Heat Flux Boundary Conditions

An analytical study is performed on steady, laminar, and fully developed forced convection heat transfer in a parallel plate channel with asymmetric uniform heat flux boundary conditions. The channel is filled with a saturated porous medium, and the lower and upper walls are subjected to different uniform heat fluxes. The dimensionless form of the Darcy–Brinkman momentum equation is solved to determine the dimensionless velocity profile, while the dimensionless energy equation is solved to obtain temperature profile for a hydrodynamically and thermally fully developed flow in the channel. Nusselt numbers for the lower and upper walls and an overall Nusselt number are defined. Analytical expressions for determination of the Nusselt numbers and critical heat flux ratio, at which singularities are observed for individual Nusselt numbers, are obtained. Based on the values of critical heat flux ratio and Darcy number, a diagram is provided to determine the direction of heat transfer between the lower or upper walls while the fluid is flowing in the channel.     

Flow and heat transfer between plates with longitudinal fins

Laminar, fully developed flow and heat transfer between parallel plates with longitudinal fins are analyzed. A modified eigenfunction expansion and point-match method gives highly accurate results. The resistance productf Re and Nusselt numbers for bothH1 andH2 problems are determined as a function of fin length and spacing. It is possible to decrease both size and weight of the heat exchanger by the addition of fins.     

Effects of aspect ratio on unsteady solutions through curved duct flow

The effects of the aspect ratio on unsteady solutions through the curved duct flow are studied numerically by a spectral based computational procedure with a temperature gradient between the vertical sidewalls for the Grashof number 100 ≤ Gr ≤ 2 000. The outer wall of the duct is heated while the inner wall is cooled and the top and bottom walls are adiabatic. In this paper, unsteady solutions are calculated by the time history analysis of the Nusselt number for the Dean numbers Dn = 100 and Dn = 500 and the aspect ratios 1≤γ≤ 3. Water is taken as a working fluid （Pr =7.0）. It is found that at Dn = 100, there appears a steady-state solution for small or large Gr. For moderate Gr, however, the steady-state solution turns into the periodic solution if γ is increased. For Dn = 500, on the other hand, it is analyzed that the steady-state solution turns into the chaotic solution for small and large Gr for any γ lying in the range. For moderate Gr at Dn = 500, however, the steady-state flow turns into the chaotic flow through the periodic oscillating flow if the aspect ratio is increased.     

A two-phase model for laminar film condensation from steam-air mixtures in vertical parallel-plate channels

Detailed results are presented for laminar film condensation from steam-air mixtures flowing downward in vertical flat-plate channels. The mixture flow is laminar and saturation conditions prevail at the inlet. A fully coupled implicit numerical approach is used that achieves excellent convergence behavior, even for high inlet gas mass fractions. The detailed results include velocity, temperature, and gas mass fraction profiles, as well as axial variations of film thickness, pressure gradient and Nusselt number. The effects of a wide range of changes in the four independent variables (the inlet-to-wall temperature difference and the inlet values of gas concentration, Reynolds number, and pressure) on the film thickness, axial pressure gradient, and the local and average Nusselt numbers are carefully examined. It was found that increases in inlet concentration of noncondensable gas caused significant decreases in the film thickness, local Nusselt number, and axial pressure gradient. An analytical solution for the film thickness and velocity field at the end of condensation path was developed and shown to be the asymptotic value of the numerical results for large distances along the channel.     

Heat transfer from rotating finned heat exchangers with different orientation angles

The local and average heat transfer characteristics of spoke like fins that extend outward from a rotating shaft have been determined experimentally. The experiments encompassed a number of geometrical parameters, including the length and chord of the fins, the number of fins deployed around the circumference of the shaft and the orientation angles of the fin. The experiments cover a wider range of rotational speeds, which varies from 25 up to 2,000 rpm. Three wire heat flux sensors have been used in conjunction with a slip ring apparatus to evaluate the local and average heat transfer coefficients. The output results indicated that, the heat transfer transition on rotating fins occurs at Reynolds number lower than encountered on the stationary rectangular fins in crossflow. In general, with non zero incidence angle, the rotating system acts as a fan and creates axial air motion, which enhance the heat transfer rate. However, the effect of orientation angle reduces with increasing the rotational speed. The Nusselt number data are independent of the number of fins in the circumferential array at high rotational speed and are weakly dependent at low Reynolds numbers. To facilitate the use of the results for design, correlations were developed which represent the fin heat transfer coefficient as a continuous function of the investigated independent parameters.     

旋转方形截面螺旋管内流动与传热特性

利用数值计算方法研究了旋转矩形截面螺旋管内的粘性流动，分析了在离心力，科氏力共同作用下曲线管道中的二次流动结构、轴向流速分布、截面温度分布、摩擦系数比以及管道Nusselt数比随各参数的变化情况。计算结果表明：当旋转方向和主流方向相同时，旋转的作用与增大Dean数的作用相同，使得管道摩擦系数变大，管道换热效果增强，而当旋转方向和主流方向相反时，管道内流动结构变化十分明显，当F≈-1．2时(F为科氏力与离心力之比)，二次流出现类似于直扭管内的鞍状流动结构，轴向速度类似于静止直管内的流动结构，管道内的摩擦系数与静止直管内的摩擦系数大约相等，换热效果减至最弱；挠率对流动结构以及摩擦系数比和Nusselt系数比的影响效果与F有关。     

Thermally developing flow in finned double‐pipe heat exchanger

A numerical solution of the convective heat transfer in the thermal entry region of the finned double‐pipe is carried out for the case of hydro‐dynamically fully developed flow when subjected to uniform wall temperature boundary condition. Adaptive axial grid size is used in order to cater for the variation of large solution gradients in the axial direction. It has been observed that the thermal entrance region is highly effective and there is a substantial enhancement in the heat transfer coefficient. A maximum of 76.4877% increase has been observed in the thermal entrance region as compared with the fully developed region for 24 fins and H*=0.6 when R?=0.25, whereas for R?=0.5 the maximum increase is 75.0308% for the same number of fins of same height. It has been observed that no geometry consistently perform better throughout the entrance region. However, the geometries that have optimal performance in the fully developed region perform better in the developing region on average terms. Results show that the Nusselt number and the thermal entrance length are dependent upon various geometrical parameters such as ratio of radii of the inner and the outer pipe, fin height and the number of fins. The limiting case results match well with the literature results. This validates our numerical procedure and computer code. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Correlation equations for friction factors and convective coefficients in tubes containing bundles of internal, longitudinal fins

Finned tubes are commonly employed in tubular heat exchangers to augment the heat transfer rates between two dissimilar fluid streams. The goal of this study is two-fold: a) to determine the laminar, fully developed velocity and temperature fields for long, internal, longitudinal finned tubes; and b) to construct empirical correlation equations applicable for the asymptotic friction factor and the asymptotic Nusselt numbers as a function of the number of fins and the relative fin height in the bundle. Neither the fluid dynamics nor the heat transfer literature provides information for the second goal, which can be extremely useful to thermal engineers for the implementation of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) of internal, longitudinal finned tubes in heat exchange devices. Moreover, for the validity of the correlation equations, a seldom adopted criterion for the critical Reynolds number has also been introduced as an indispensable guideline to warrant laminar regimes. Received on 24 January 1997     

Pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics of turbulent flow in annular tubes with internal wave-like longitudinal fins

Measured were pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics with uniform axial heat input using air as the working fluid in both the entrance and fully developed regions of annular tubes with wave-like longitudinal fins. Five series of experiments were performed for turbulent flow and heat transfer in the annular tubes with number of waves equal to 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20, respectively. The test tube has a double-pipe structure with the inner blocked tubes as an insertion. The wave-like fins are in the annulus and span its full width. The friction factor and Nusselt number in the fully developed region were obtained. The friction factor and Nusselt number can be well corrected by a power-law correction in the Reynolds number range tested. In order to evaluate the thermal performance of the longitudinal finned tubes over a plain circular tube, comparisons were made under three conditions: (1) identical pumping power; (2) identical pressure drop and (3) identical mass flow. It was found that under the three constraints all the wave-like finned tubes can enhance heat transfer with the tube with wave number 20 being superior. Finally, discussion on the enhancement mechanism is conducted and a general correlation for the fully developed heat transfer is provided, which can cover all the fifty data of the five tubes with a mean deviation of 9.3%.