The effects of different entrance sections lengths and heating on free and forced convective heat transfer inside a horizontal circular tube

An experimental study was done for hydrodynamically fully developed and thermally developing laminar air flows in a horizontal circular tube has a 30 mm inside diameter and 900 mm heated length (L/D = 30) under a constant wall heat flux boundary condition, with different aluminum entrance section pipes (calming sections) having the same inside diameter as test section pipe but with variable lengths of 600 mm (L/D = 20), 1200 mm (L/D = 40), 1800 mm (L/D = 60), and 2400 mm (L/D = 80). The Reynolds number ranged from 400 to 1600 and the heat flux is varied from 60 W m^− 2 to 400 W m^− 2. This paper examines the effects of the entrance sections lengths and heating on the free and forced convection heat transfer process. The surface temperature data were measured and heat transfer rates at different heat flux levels as well as different Reynolds numbers were calculated and correlated in the form of relevant parameters. The buoyancy force has a significant effect on the heat transfer and the combined convection factor was approximately varied form 0.13 ≤ Gr/Re² ≤ 7.125. It was found that the surface temperature increases as the entrance section length increases. It was inferred that the heat transfer decreases as the entrance section length increases due to the flow resistance and the mass flow rate. The proposed correlation was compared with available literature and with laminar forced convection and showed satisfactory agreement.     

An experimental study of heat transfer in oscillating flow through a channel filled with an aluminum foam

An experimental study has been conducted on the heat transfer of oscillating flow through a channel filled with aluminum foam subjected to a constant wall heat flux. The surface temperature distribution on the wall, velocity of flow through porous channel and pressure drop across the test section were measured. The characteristics of pressure drop, the effects of the dimensionless amplitude of displacement and dimensionless frequency of oscillating flow on heat transfer in porous channel were analyzed. The results revealed that the heat transfer in oscillating flow is significantly enhanced by employing porous media in a plate channel. The cycle-averaged local Nusselt number increases with both the kinetic Reynolds number Re_ω and the dimensionless amplitude of flow displacement A₀. The length-averaged Nusselt number is effectively increased by increasing the kinetic Reynolds number from 178 to 874 for A₀ = 3.1-4.1. Based on the experimental data, a correlation equation of the length-averaged Nusselt number with the dimensionless parameters of Re_ω and A₀ is obtained for a porous channel with L/D_h = 3.     

Experimental investigation of mixed convection heat transfer for thermally developing flow in a horizontal circular cylinder

An experimental investigation is presented on mixed (free and forced) convection to study the local and average heat transfer for hydrodynamically fully developed, thermally developing and thermally fully developed laminar air flow in a horizontal circular cylinder. The experimental setup consists of aluminum cylinder as test section with 30 mm inside diameter and 900 mm heated length (L/D = 30), is subjected to a constant wall heat flux boundary condition. The investigation covers Reynolds number range from 400 to 1600, the heat flux varied from 60 W/m² to 400 W/m² and with cylinder inclination angle of θ = 0° (horizontal). The hydrodynamically fully developed condition is achieved by using an aluminum entrance section pipes (calming sections) having the same inside diameter as test section pipe but with variable lengths. The entrance sections included two long calming sections, one with length of 180 cm (L/D = 60), another one with length of 240 cm (L/D = 80) and two short calming sections with lengths 60 cm (L/D = 20), 120 cm (L/D = 40). The surface temperature variation along the cylinder surface, the local and average Nusselt number variation with the dimensionless axial distance Z⁺ were presented. For all entrance sections, it was found an increase in the Nusselt number values as the heat flux increases. It was concluded that the free convection effects tended to decrease the heat transfer results at low Re while to increase the heat transfer results for high Re. The combined convection regime could be bounded by a suitable selection of Re number ranges and the heat flux ranges. The obtained Richardson numbers (Ri) range varied approximately from 0.13 to 7.125. The average Nusselt numbers were correlated with the (Rayleigh numbers/Reynolds numbers). The proposed correlation has been compared with available literature and showed satisfactory agreement.     

Enhancement of heat transfer in a tube with regularly-spaced helical tape swirl generators

Influence of helical tapes inserted in a tube on heat transfer enhancement is studied experimentally. A helical tape is inserted in the tube with a view to generating swirl flow that helps to increase the heat transfer rate of the tube. The flow rate of the tube is considered in a range of Reynolds number between 2300 and 8800. The swirling flow devices consisting of: (1) the full-length helical tape with or without a centered-rod, and (2) the regularly-spaced helical tape, are inserted in the inner tube of a concentric tube heat exchanger. Hot air is passed through the inner tube whereas cold water is flowed in the annulus. The experimental data obtained are compared with those obtained from plain tubes of published data. Experimental results confirmed that the use of helical tapes leads to a higher heat transfer rate over the plain tube. The full-length helical tape with rod provides the highest heat transfer rate about 10% better than that without rod but it increased the pressure drop. To overcome this, different free-spacing ratio (s = L_s/L_h) of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 were examined. It was found that the space ratio value should be about unity for Re < 4000. The regularly-spaced helical tape inserts at s = 0.5 yields the highest Nusselt number which is about 50% above the plain tube.     

Mixed convection heat transfer in horizontal,concentric annuli for transitional flow conditions

Experiments have been performed to determine mixed convection flow and heat transfer in a horizontal, concentric tube annulus for Reynolds numbers in the range 2200 < Re < 5000. Within this range, flow conditions are turbulent and laminar, respectively, in regions of the annulus above and below the heated inner tube. For Reynolds numbers less than a critical value Re₁ which depends on the Rayleigh number, diameter ratio and longitudinal position, flow along the sides of the annulus is laminar and helicoidal. For Re >Re₁, there is a breakdown in the helicoidal motion, with subsequent transition to turbulence in the top and side regions of the annular passage. The local Nusselt number at the top of the inner tube is less than, equal to, and greater than that at the bottom for Re < Re₁, Re = Re₁, and Re >Re₁, respectively. The circumferentially averaged Nusselt number is weakly dependent on longitudinal position and may be correlated in terms of the Rayleigh and Reynolds numbers and the tube diameter ratio.     

Modeling of forced convective heat transfer of a non-Newtonian nanofluid in the horizontal tube under constant heat flux with computational fluid dynamics

In this paper, convective heat transfer effect on the non-Newtonian nanofluid flow in the horizontal tube with constant heat flux was investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). For this purpose, non-Newtonian nanofluid containing Al₂O₃ and Xanthan aqueous solution as a liquid single phase with two average particle sizes of 45 and 150 nm and four particle concentrations of 1, 2, 4 and 6 wt.% and two concentrations of Xanthan aqueous solutions (0.6,1.0 wt.%) were used. Effect of particle size and concentration of Xanthan solution on convective heat transfer coefficient was investigated in different Reynolds numbers (500 < Re < 2500) for various axial locations of tube. The results showed that heat transfer coefficient and Nu number of non-Newtonian nanofluid increased with increasing concentration of Xanthan solution. By applying the modeling results, an equation was obtained for Nusselt number prediction using the dimensionless numbers. The results showed that the correlated data were in very good agreement with predicted data. The maximum error was around 5%.     

An experimental study of heat transfer to turbulent separation fluid flow in an annular passage

The effect of step height on heat transfer to a radially outward expanded air flow stream in a concentric annular passage was studied experimentally. Separation, subsequent reattachment and developed air flow occurred in the test section at a constant heat flux boundary condition. The experimental investigation was focused on the effect of separation flow on the local and average convection heat transfer. The experimental set-up consists of concentric tubes to form annular passage with a sudden reduction in passage cross-section created by the variations of outer tube diameter at the annular entrance section (D). The outer tube of test section was made of aluminium having 83 mm inside diameter and 600 mm heated length, which was subjected to a constant wall heat flux boundary condition. The investigation was performed in a Re range of 17050-44545, heat flux varied from 719 W/m² to 2098 W/m² and the enhancement of step heights were, s = 0 (without step), 6 mm, 14.5 mm and 18.5 mm, which refer to d/D = 1, 1.16, 1.53 and 1.80, respectively.For all cases, an increase in the local heat transfer coefficient was obtained against enhanced heat flux and or Re. The effect of step variation is prominent in heat transfer at the separation region which increases with the rise of step height and it shows a little effect in the redevelopment region. In the separation region, the local heat transfer coefficient increases up to the maximum value at the reattachment point and then decreases gradually in the redevelopment region. The results have been correlated and compared with forced convection heat transfer in annular passage and show a maximum enhancement of 18% (S_max = 18.5 mm) within the range of step height. The present results show good agreement with previous works and have followed similar trends.     

Combined convection heat transfer for thermally developing aiding flow in an inclined circular cylinder with constant heat flux

Experiments have been conducted to study the local and average heat transfer by mixed convection for hydrodynamically fully developed, thermally developing and thermally fully developed laminar air flow in an inclined circular cylinder. The experimental setup consists of aluminum cylinder as test section with 30 mm inside diameter and 900 mm heated length (L/D = 30), is subjected to a constant wall heat flux boundary condition. The investigation covers Reynolds number range from 400 to 1600, heat flux is varied from 70 W/m² to 400 W/m² and cylinder angles of inclination including 30°, 45° and 60°. The hydrodynamically fully developed condition has been achieved by using aluminum entrance section pipes (calming sections) having the same inside diameter as test section pipe but with variable lengths. The entrance sections included two long calming sections, one with length of 180 cm (L/D = 60), another one with length of 240 cm (L/D = 80) and two short calming sections with lengths of 60 cm (L/D = 20), 120 cm (L/D = 40). The results present the surface temperature distribution along the cylinder length, the local and average Nusselt number distribution with the dimensionless axial distance Z⁺. For all entrance sections, the results showed an increase in the Nusselt number values as the heat flux increases and as the angle of cylinder inclination moves from θ = 60° inclined cylinder to θ = 0° horizontal cylinder. The mixed convection regime has been bounded by the convenient selection of Re number range and the heat flux range, so that the obtained Richardson numbers (Ri) is varied approximately from 0.13 to 7.125. The average Nusselt numbers have been correlated with the (Rayleigh numbers/Reynolds numbers) in empirical correlations.     

Comparison between single-phase and two-phases CFD modeling of laminar forced convection flow of nanofluids in a circular tube under constant heat flux

In this article, forced convection heat transfer with laminar and developed flow for water-Al₂O₃ nanofluid inside a circular tube under constant heat flux from the wall was numerically investigated using computational fluid dynamics method. Both single and two-phase models are accomplished for either constant or temperature dependent properties. For this study nanofluids with size particles equal to 100 nm and particle concentrations of 1 and 4 wt% were used. It is observed that the nanoparticles when dispersed in base fluid such as water enhance the convective heat transfer coefficient. The Nusselt number and heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids were obtained for different nanoparticle concentrations and various Reynolds numbers. Heat transfer was enhanced by increasing the concentration of nanoparticles in nanofluid and Reynolds number. Also, a correlation based on the dimensionless numbers was obtained for the prediction the Nusselt number. The modeling results showed that the predicted values were in very good agreement with reference experimental data.     

Numerical investigation of pulsating flow around a discrete heater in a channel

In this study, the forced convection heat transfer around a discrete heater located in a channel subjected to laminar pulsating air flow is numerically investigated. Simulations are conducted for six different frequencies and three different amplitudes, while the Reynolds number (Re = 125) and Prandtl number (Pr = 0.71) remain constant for all cases. The impact of the important governing parameters such as the Womersley number (Wo) and the amplitude of flow pulsation (A_o) on heat transfer rate from discrete heaters is examined in detail. The instant velocity and temperature profiles are obtained to determine of the role of dimensionless parameters for pulsating flow. The numerical results show that thermal transport from the heater is greatly affected by the frequency and amplitude of the flow pulsation. The results given are dimensionless parameters.     

Exergy transfer in a porous rectangular channel

Present paper is performed to investigate the heat and exergy transfer characteristics of forced convection flow through a horizontal rectangular channel where open-cell metal foams of different pore densities such as 10, 20 and 30 PPI (per pore inches) were situated. All of the bounding walls of the channel are subjected to various uniform heat fluxes. The pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics are presented by two important parametric values, Nusselt number (Nu_H) and friction factor (f), as functions of Reynolds number (Re_H) and the wall heat flux (q). The Reynolds number (Re_H) based on the channel height of the rectangular channel is varied from 600 to 33?000, while the Grashof number (Gr_Dh) ranged from approximately 10⁵–10⁷ depending on q. Based on the experimental data, new empirical correlations are constructed to link the Nu_H. The results of all cases are compared to that of the empty channel and the literature. It is found that the results are in good agreement with those cited in the references. The mean exergy transfer Nusselt number (Nu_e) based on the Re_H, Nu_H, Pr and q for a rectangular channel with constant heat flux is presented and discussed.     

Modeling of convection heat transfer of supercritical carbon dioxide in a vertical tube at low Reynolds numbers using artificial neural network

Today, many researches have been directed on heat transfer of supercritical fluids; however, since the analysis of heat transfer in these fluids founded by a mathematical model based on the effective parameters is complicated, so in this paper, a group method of data handling (GMDH) type artificial neural network are used for calculating local heat transfer coefficient h_x of supercritical carbon dioxide in a vertical tube with 2 mm diameter at low Reynolds numbers (Re < 2500) by empirical results obtained by Jiang et al. [1].At first, we considered h_x as target parameter and G, Re, Bo^?, x⁺ and q_w as input parameters. Then, we divided empirical data into train and test sections in order to accomplish modeling. We instructed GMDH type neural network by 80% of the empirical data. 20% of primary data which had been considered for testing the appropriateness of the modeling were entered into the GMDH network. Results were compared by two statistical criterions (R² and RMSE) with empirical ones. The results obtained by using GMDH type neural network are in excellent agreement with the experimental results.     

Heat transfer in helical channels with two-sided heating in gas flow

Experimental results and analysis of heat transfer from convex and concave walls (surfaces) and average heat transfer from both walls to hydrodynamically and thermally stabilized air flow in rectangular helical channels with two-sided heating over a wide range of flow hydrodynamic (Re = 10³-2 × 10⁵) and geometric parameters (relative curvature D/h = 5-90 and relative width b/h = 2-20) are presented. It is established, that in case of two-sided heating the heat transfer (Nu numbers) from convex and concave walls increases up to 20% in comparison with one-sided heating. Average heat transfer in helical channels increases up to 50% for laminar-vortex flow regime, and up to 20% for turbulent flow regime in comparison with heat transfer in straight flat channel. Correlations are proposed for stabilized heat transfer for different flow regimes.     

Variation of Nusselt number with flow regimes behind a circular cylinder for Reynolds numbers from 70 to 30 000

The dependence of the Nusselt number in the separated flow behind a circular cylinder to the cross-flow varies greatly with Reynolds number according to the flow regimes, i.e., laminar shedding, wake transition, and shear-layer transition regimes. The Nusselt number at the rear stagnation point, Nu_r/Re^0.5, increases with Reynolds number in the laminar shedding regime (Re < 150) and the shear-layer transition regime (3000 < Re < 15 000), corresponding to the shortening of the vortex formation region. On the contrary, the Nusselt number, Nu_r/Re^0.5, decreases with Reynolds number in the regime in which the wake develops to a complex three-dimensional flow (300 < Re < 1500), corresponding to the lengthening of the vortex formation region. This distinctive change affects the correlation of the overall Nusselt number with Reynolds number, i.e., the exponent of the Reynolds number has a lower value for 200 < Re < 2000 than that for 70 < Re < 200 and Re > 2000.     

Height effect on heat transfer characteristics of sintered porous blocks with a confined slot jet

This work numerically investigates the heat transfer of a sintered porous block under a confined slot air jet. The width of the jet nozzle (W) is 5 mm; the ratio of the porous block length to the jet nozzle width (L/W) is 12, and the Prandtl number (Pr) is 0.7. Variable parameters are the ratio of the porous block height to the jet nozzle width (H/W) and the Reynolds number (Re). The findings reveal that the cooling performance with the sintered porous block was better than that with an aluminum foam block, and was at least 5.8 times as large as that without it. The Nusselt number increased as the H/W fell. The effect of Reynolds number on the heat transfer was negligible at Re ≤ 1000 but considerable at Re > 1000.     

Conjugate forced convection heat transfer from a flat plate by laminar plane wall jet flow

An analytical solution is investigated for forced convection heat transfer from a laminar plane wall jet as conjugate case. For Re ? 1, boundary layer theory is used for the investigation. The problem has been solved for two classic cases such as Pr ? 1 and Pr ? 1. The conjugate model consists of considering the full Navier-Stokes equation in the fluid medium and coupling of energy equations in the fluid and the slab through the interface boundary conditions. Closed-form relations are found for Nusselt number (Nu), average Nusselt number and conjugate interface boundary temperature (θ_b). The effects of the Reynolds number (Re), the Prandtl number (Pr), the thermal conductivity ratio (k) between the slab and the fluid medium and the slab aspect ratio (λ) are investigated on the heat transfer characteristics. The analytical results are compared with the full numerical results.     

Cocurrent turbulent mixed convection heat and mass transfer in falling film of water inside a vertical heated tube

A detailed numerical study has been conducted in order to analyse the combined buoyancy effects of thermal and mass diffusion on the turbulent mixed convection tube flows. Numerical results for air-water system are presented under different conditions. A low Reynolds number k-ε turbulent model is used with combined heat and mass transfer analysis in a vertical heated tube. The local heat fluxes, Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are reported to obtain an understanding of the physical phenomena. Predicted results show that a better heat transfer results for a higher gas flow Reynolds number Re, a higher heat flux q_w or a lower inlet water flow Γ₀. Additionally, the results indicate that the convection of heat by the flowing water film becomes the main mechanism for heat removal from the wall.     

Numerical study on coupled fluid flow and heat transfer process in parabolic trough solar collector tube

A unified two-dimensional numerical model was developed for the coupled heat transfer process in parabolic solar collector tube, which includes nature convection, forced convection, heat conduction and fluid-solid conjugate problem. The effects of Rayleigh number (Ra), tube diameter ratio and thermal conductivity of the tube wall on the heat transfer and fluid flow performance were numerically analyzed. The distributions of flow field, temperature field, local Nu and local temperature gradient were examined. The results show that when Ra is larger than 10⁵, the effects of nature convection must be taken into account. With the increase of tube diameter ratio, the Nusselt number in inner tube (Nu₁) increases and the Nusselt number in annuli space (Nu₂) decreases. With the increase of tube wall thermal conductivity, Nu₁ decreases and Nu₂ increases. When thermal conductivity is larger than 200 W/(m K), it would have little effects on Nu and average temperatures. Due to the effect of the nature convection, along the circumferential direction (from top to down), the temperature in the cross-section decreases and the temperature gradient on inner tube surface increases at first. Then, the temperature and temperature gradients would present a converse variation at θ near π. The local Nu on inner tube outer surface increases along circumferential direction until it reaches a maximum value then it decreases again.     

An analytical study of pulsating laminar heat convection in a circular tube with constant heat flux

Pulsating laminar convection heat transfer in a circular tube with constant wall heat flux is investigated analytically. The results show that both the temperature profile and the Nusselt number fluctuate periodically about the solution for steady laminar convection, with the fluctuation amplitude depending on the dimensionless pulsation frequency, ω*, the amplitude, γ, and the Prandtl number, Pr. It is also shown that pulsation has no effect on the time-average Nusselt numbers for pulsating convection heat transfer in a circular tube with constant wall heat flux.