Abstract: | Finite rod-clusters in circular, square and hexagonal shells have been divided along the symmetry lines into a number of interior, wall and corner subchannels. Laminar fluid flow and heat transfer results have been generated for these subchannels with varying pitch-to-diameter and wall distance-to-diameter ratios. Wall shear stress and temperature variations for typical wall subchannels are presented. Friction factor values for finite bundles are then obtained by superposing the results of the subchannels that constitute the bundles. The values so generated are in excellent agreement with previous work in the literature obtained by the method of symmetry sectors. Considerable disagreements were, however, observed in the superposed values of Nusselt number, apparently due to conduction effects. |