Coherent structures in trailing-edge cooling and the challenge for turbulent heat transfer modelling

The present paper tests the capability of a standard Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) turbulence model for predicting the turbulent heat transfer in a generic trailing-edge situation with a cutback on the pressure side of the blade. The model investigated uses a gradient-diffusion assumption with a scalar turbulent-diffusivity and constant turbulent Prandtl number. High-fidelity Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) were performed for three blowing ratios to provide reliable target data and the mean velocity and eddy viscosity as input for the heat transfer model testing. Reasonably good agreement between the LES and recent experiments was achieved for mean flow and turbulence statistics. The LES yielded coherent structures which were analysed, in particular with respect to their effect on the turbulent heat transfer. For increasing blowing ratio, the LES replicated an also experimentally observed counter-intuitive decrease of the cooling effectiveness caused by the coherent structures becoming stronger. In contrast, the RANS turbulent heat transfer model failed in predicting this behaviour and yielded significantly too high cooling effectiveness. It is shown that the model cannot predict the strong upstream and wall-directed turbulent heat fluxes caused by large coherent structures, which were found to be responsible for the counter-intuitive decrease of the cooling effectiveness.     

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.     

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

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

Application of nanofluids to a heat pipe liquid-block and the thermoelectric cooling of electronic equipment

Microprocessor power dissipation is constantly increasing. An increase in microprocessor size has also resulted in higher heat fluxes. The growth of information technology has rapidly increased over the past few years, causing an increase in the demand for a microprocessor that has a very high computing ability. The previous generation of central processing units (CPU) had 1.17 billion transistors planted in it, which indicates that a significant amount of heat was generated. The total heat dissipation resulting from a high end CPU is approximately 110-140 W, which will increase if the CPU voltage and frequency increase. Conventional air-cooled cooling systems are no longer adequate to remove these heat fluxes. For a number of applications, direct air-cooling systems will have to be replaced or enhanced by other high performance compact cooling techniques. In this study, the application of nanofluids as the working fluid on a heat pipe liquid-block combined with thermoelectric cooling is investigated. The type and effect of volume concentrations of nanofluids, coolant temperature, and thermoelectricsystem as heat pumps of a PC on the CPU’s temperature are considered. The results obtained from this technique are compared to those from other conventional cooling techniques. The heat pipe liquid-block combined with the thermoelectric system has a significant effect on heat transfer from the CPU. The higher thermal performance heat pipe liquid-block and thermoelectric cooled system with nanofluids proved its potential as a working fluid.     

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.     

Numerical simulation of heat transfer in a pipe with non-homogeneous thermal boundary conditions

Direct numerical simulations of heat transfer in a fully-developed turbulent pipe flow with circumferentially-varying thermal boundary conditions are reported. Three cases have been considered for friction Reynolds number in the range 180–360 and Prandtl number in the range 0.7–4. The temperature statistics under these heating conditions are characterized. Eddy diffusivities and turbulent Prandtl numbers for radial and circumferential directions are evaluated and compared to the values predicted by simple models. It is found that the usual assumptions made in these models provide reasonable predictions far from the wall and that corrections to the models are needed near the wall.     

Flow of a micropolar fluid due to a porous stretching sheet and heat transfer

The present work investigates the micropolar fluid flow due to a permeable stretching sheet and the resulting heat transfer. Unlike the existing numerical works on the flow phenomenon in the literature, the prime interest here is to analytically work out shape of the solutions and identify whether they are unique. Indeed, unique solutions are detected and presented in the exact formulas for the associated boundary layer equations. Temperature field influenced by the microrotation is also mathematically resolved in the cases of constant wall temperature, constant heat flux and Newtonian heating. To discover the salient physical features of many mechanisms acting on the considered problem, it is adequate to have the analytical velocity and temperature fields and also closed-form skin friction/couple stress/heat transfer coefficients, all as given in the current paper. For instance, the practically significant rate of heat transfer is represented by a single formula valid for all three temperature cases.     

DNS of heat transfer increase in a cylinder stagnation region due to wake-induced turbulence

Heat transfer in the stagnation point area of a heated cylinder is investigated using Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS). The heated cylinder is subjected to the turbulent wake of a smaller cylinder placed upstream. Two Reynolds numbers based on the diameter of the heated cylinder of 13,200 and 48,000 are chosen. In accordance with correlations in the literature, an increase in heat transfer compared to fully laminar flow is found for all angles along the front circumferential area of the heated cylinder. However, due to the presence of the wake, the maximum increase is shifted away from the centerline. The characteristic turbulence level and Nusselt number in the present study are an order of magnitude higher than those reported in previous simulations. The DNS results obtained, are in good agreement with an existing experimental correlation. Finally, relevant flow structures and instantaneous temperature fields are visualized.     

High-order LES of turbulent heat transfer in a rotor–stator cavity

The present work examines the turbulent flow in an enclosed rotor–stator system subjected to heat transfer effects. Besides their fundamental importance as three-dimensional prototype flows, such flows arise in many industrial applications but also in many geophysical and astrophysical settings. Large eddy simulations (LES) are here performed using a spectral vanishing viscosity technique. The LES results have already been favorably compared to velocity measurements in the isothermal case (Séverac, E., Poncet, S., Serre, E., Chauve, M.P., 2007. Large eddy simulation and measurements of turbulent enclosed rotor–stator flows. Phys. Fluids, 19, 085113) for a large range of Reynolds numbers 10⁵Re=Ωb²/ν10⁶, in an annular cavity of large aspect ratio G=(b-a)/H=5 and weak curvature parameter R_m=(b-a)/(b+a)=1.8 (a,b the inner and outer radii of the rotor and H the interdisk spacing). The purpose of this paper is to extend these previous results in the non-isothermal case using the Boussinesq approximation to take into account the buoyancy effects. Thus, the effects of thermal convection have been examined for a turbulent flow Re=10⁶ of air in the same rotor–stator system for Rayleigh numbers up to Ra=10⁸. These LES results provide accurate, instantaneous quantities which are of interest in understanding the physics of turbulent flows and heat transfers in an interdisk cavity. Even at high Rayleigh numbers, the structure of the iso-values of the instantaneous normal temperature gradient at the disk surfaces resembles the one of the iso-values of the tangential velocity with large spiral arms along the rotor and more thin structures along the stator. The averaged results show small effects of density variation on the mean and turbulent fields. The turbulent Prandtl number is a decreasing function of the distance to the wall with 1.4 close to the disks and about 0.3 in the outer layers. The local Nusselt number is found to be proportional to the local Reynolds number to the power 0.7. The evolution of the averaged Bolgiano length scale L_B with the Rayleigh number indicates that temperature fluctuations may have a large influence on the dynamics only at the largest scales of the system for Ra10⁷, since L_B remains lower than the thermal boundary layer thicknesses.     

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.     

Direct numerical simulation of turbulent heat transfer in a square duct with transverse ribs mounted on one wall

Turbulent heat transfer in a ribbed square duct of three different blockage ratios are investigated using direct numerical simulation (DNS). The results of ribbed duct cases are compared with those of a heated smooth duct flow. It is observed that owing to the existence of the ribs and confinement of the duct, organized secondary flows appear as large streamwise-elongated vortices, which intensely interact with the rib elements and four sidewalls and have profound influences on the transport of momentum and thermal energy. This study also shows that the drag and heat transfer coefficients are highly sensitive to the rib height. It is observed that as the rib height increases, the impinging effect of the flow on the windward face of the rib strengthens, leading to enhanced rates of turbulent mixing and heat transfer. The influence of sidewalls and rib height on the turbulence structures associated with temperature fluctuations are analyzed based on multiple tools such as vortex swirling strengths, temporal auto-correlations, spatial two-point cross-correlations, joint probability density functions (JPDF) between the temperature and velocity fluctuations, statistical moments of different orders, and temperature spectra.     

Peristaltic flow and heat transfer in a vertical porous annulus, with long wave approximation

In this paper, we study the interaction of peristalsis with heat transfer for the flow of a viscous fluid in a vertical porous annular region between two concentric tubes. Long wavelength approximation (that is, the wavelength of the peristaltic wave is large in comparison with the radius of the tube) is used to linearise the governing equations. Using the perturbation method, the solutions are obtained for the velocity and the temperature fields. Also, the closed form expressions are derived for the pressure-flow relationship and the heat transfer at the wall. The effect of pressure drop on flux is observed to be almost negligible for peristaltic waves of large amplitude; however, the mean flux is found to increase by 10-12% as the free convection parameter increases from 1 to 2. Also, the heat transfer at the wall is affected significantly by the amplitude of the peristaltic wave. This warrants further study on the effects of peristalsis on the flow and heat transfer characteristics.     

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.     

Transient heat and mass transfer and long-term stability of a salt-gradient solar pond

In this work, the problem of transient heat and mass transfer and long-term stability of a SGSP has been numerically investigated using a 2D-transient-variable properties model and a finite-control-volume numerical method. The pond, which was assumed initially stabilized with linear temperature and salinity profiles, has been subject to real weather conditions. The numerical model has been satisfactorily validated against measured temperature data. Numerical results have clearly shown that the solar heating effect appears considerably more pronounced during the hot seasons (spring and summer) than during the cold ones (winter and autumn). The existence of two critical zones, one beneath the water surface and the other one located near the pond bottom, has clearly been established at a very early time of operation. It has been found that such critical zones have progressively become more vulnerable in time. Also, the solar heating effect, the heat losses through the free surface as well as the water transparency have an important influence on the pond stability characteristics and its temporal evolution. The presence of a heat extraction with its cooling effect tends to stabilize the pond. Such a beneficial effect, which is mainly observed in the bottom region of the pond, has been found to be more pronounced during the summer than during the winter time. Results have also shown that the pond with good transparency water would likely be more susceptible to develop instabilities than the one with poorer transparency water. Such an effect appears to be more important inside the lower critical zone.     

Effects of thermophoresis particle deposition and of the thermal conductivity in a porous plate with dissipative heat and mass transfer

Network simulation method(NSM) is used to solve the laminar heat and mass transfer of an electricallyconducting,heat generating/absorbing fluid past a perforated horizontal surface in the presence of viscous and Joule heating problem. The governing partial differential equations are non-dimensionalized and transformed into a system of nonlinear ordinary differential similarity equations,in a single independent variable,η. The resulting coupled,nonlinear equations are solved under appropriate transformed boundary conditions. Computations are performed for a wide range of the governing flow parameters,viz Prandtl number,thermophoretic coeffcient(a function of Knudsen number),thermal conductivity parameter,wall transpiration parameter and Schmidt number. The numerical details are discussed with relevant applications. The present problem finds applications in optical fiber fabrication,aerosol filter precipitators,particle deposition on hydronautical blades,semiconductor wafer design,thermo-electronics and problems including nuclear reactor safety.     

DNS of heat transfer in transitional, accelerated boundary layer flow over a flat plate affected by free-stream fluctuations

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of flow over and heat transfer from a flat plate affected by free-stream fluctuations were performed. A contoured upper wall was employed to generate a favourable streamwise pressure gradient along a large portion of the flat plate. The free-stream fluctuations originated from a separate LES of isotropic turbulence in a box. In the laminar portions of the accelerating boundary layer flow the formation of streaks was observed to induce an increase in heat transfer by the exchange of hot fluid near the surface of the plate and cold fluid from the free-stream. In the regions where the streamwise pressure gradient was only mildly favourable, intermittent turbulent spots were detected which relaminarised downstream as the streamwise pressure gradient became stronger. The relaminarisation of the turbulent spots was reflected by a slight decrease in the friction coefficient, which converged to its laminar value in the region where the streamwise pressure gradient was strongest.     

Effect of coarse particles on the heat transfer in a particle-laden turbulent boundary layer

The temperature distribution in particle-laden turbulent flow, in a flume, was investigated both by DNS and experimentally. Simulations were performed at Re=171 and Pr=5.4 in order to study the interaction between the particle motion and flow turbulence. Two-way coupling was used to obtain various turbulence statistics, the grid resolution was sufficiently fine to resolve all essential turbulent scales. The effect of particle diameter on momentum, heat transfer and particle deposition was considered. The details of particle-turbulence interaction depend on the particle Stokes number and the particle Reynolds number.

The spatial structures of instantaneous flow and temperature fields were visualized. Low frequency small oscillations of deposited particles were observed. It was found that these small deviations from the initial position, caused strong changes in the instantaneous temperature field near the particle.

The experiments provided details of the temperature field on the heated wall close to the particle. In the front of the particle, a sharp increase in heat transfer coefficient was observed. The experimental results agree well with the computational predictions.     

The comparison of two approaches to numerical modelling of gas-particles turbulent flow and heat transfer in a pipe

The comparison of two theoretical approaches for the numerical investigation of turbulent gas–solid flows with heat transfer in a pipe are presented in this paper. The first approach is based on Eulerian–Eulerian modelling of investigated phenomena, the second one is formulated within the framework of the Eulerian–Lagrangian approach. The verification of numerical models under consideration. Their testing against available experimental data show good prognostic properties of the elaborated theoretical tool for research activities to study new physical fundamentals of turbulent gas-suspended particles flows in pipes and channels.