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Article
Publication date: 14 June 2011

Sara Rainieri, Fabio Bozzoli, Linda Schiavi and Giorgio Pagliarini

The aim of this paper is to investigate the convective heat transfer in swirl tubes, which are obtained by roto‐translating a circular section eccentric with respect to the…

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to investigate the convective heat transfer in swirl tubes, which are obtained by roto‐translating a circular section eccentric with respect to the rotation axis. The geometry is numerically investigated with the aim of evaluating the convective heat transfer enhancement effect due to the secondary flow induced by the centrifugal force.

Design/methodology/approach

The governing equations, i.e. continuity, momentum and energy equations, are integrated numerically within Comsol Multiphysics® environment, under the assumption of incompressible Newtonian and constant properties fluid and of periodically fully developed laminar flow for what concerns both the hydrodynamic and the thermal problem under the uniform wall heat flux thermal boundary condition.

Findings

The heat transfer performance of the geometry is discussed in relation to the flow pattern. In particular, the numerical results show that two different stable flow regimes may exist, according to the ratio of the Reynolds number to the dimensionless helix pitch. The Nusselt number augmentation becomes significant for high Prandtl number fluids when a critical Re/P* value, corresponding to the onset of the centrifugal forces induced secondary flow, is reached.

Originality/value

The geometry here investigated represents an interesting solution to enhance the convective heat transfer in situations in which the flow, although disturbed, persists in the laminar regime. This type of enhanced tubes shows then interesting heat transfer performances (which becomes particularly significant for high Prandtl number values) by thus suggesting convenient applications also for highly viscous fluids which are often treated under the laminar flow regime.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 21 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 September 2023

Mohammad Abbaszadeh, Mohammad Hossein Montazeri and Mojtaba Mirzaie

The purpose of the study is to propose a novel implementation of twisted tape in sinusoidal wavy-walled tubes to enhance the rate of heat transfer without compromising thermal…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the study is to propose a novel implementation of twisted tape in sinusoidal wavy-walled tubes to enhance the rate of heat transfer without compromising thermal efficiency. The study numerically investigates the fluid flow characteristics and analyzes the effect of different geometrical configurations, including wall wave amplitude, tape twist angles and nanoparticle volume fractions, on heat transfer improvement and performance factor.

Design/methodology/approach

This problem is numerically investigated using computational fluid dynamics, and the method is the finite volume method. A two-phase mixture model is used for nanofluid modeling.

Findings

The study investigated the effect of wall waviness, twisted tape, and nanoparticles on forced convective heat transfer and friction factor behavior in laminar pipe flow in three different Reynolds number regimes. The results showed that implementing twisted tape in wavy tubes significantly increased the rate of heat transfer and the performance factor, with the best twist ratio between 90 and 180°. Adding nanoparticles also enhanced heat transfer and performance factor, but to a lesser extent than wavy wall-twisted tape combinations. The study suggests selecting a proper combination of wavy wall and twisted tape at each Reynolds number to achieve an optimum solution.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the implementation of the selected passive methods in sinusoidal wavy tubes has not been studied before, and no previous studies have taken into account such a mix of heat transfer improvement techniques.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 33 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 June 2016

Senda Agrebi, Juan P. Solano, Ali Snoussi and Ammar Ben Brahim

The purpose of this paper is to present a numerical analysis of the flow and heat transfer in a tube with a wire coil insert. A second law analysis of the results is accounted…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a numerical analysis of the flow and heat transfer in a tube with a wire coil insert. A second law analysis of the results is accounted for, in order to assess the local and overall entropy generation in relation with the increased pressure drop and convective heat transfer. A wire coil with p/D=1.25 and e/D=0.076 is selected as insert device. A Reynolds number range between 100 and 1,000 is investigated, which corresponds to the typical operating regimes in the risers of liquid solar collectors. Different wall heat fluxes and inclination angles allow to analyze the potential impact of mixed convection in the presence of tube inserts.

Design/methodology/approach

Three-dimensional numerical simulations are performed using a finite-volume solver, assuming laminar flow conditions. Pure water and a mixture of water and propylene-glycol (20 percent) are used as working fluids, with temperature-dependent properties. Fanning friction factor, Nusselt number and local entropy generation results are obtained in the fully developed region.

Findings

The friction factor results are successfully compared with a well-known experimental correlation for wire coil inserts. The earlier onset of transition is devised at Re > 300. Nusselt number augmentations between 2.5- and 6-fold are reported with respect to the smooth tube. The mixed convection regime encountered in the smooth tube for the operating conditions investigated is canceled in the wire coiled tube, owing to the opposed effect of the swirl flow induced and the bouyancy forces. Frictional, heat transfer and overall entropy generation rates are computed locally in the fully developed region, allowing to relate these results with the flow structures in the mixed convection smooth tube and in the wire coiled tube. A threefold decrease in the entropy generation rate is reported for tubes with wire coil inserts.

Originality/value

An holistic understanding of the heat transfer enhancement in tubes with wire coil inserts is provided through the analysis of the flow pattern, Fanning friction factor, Nusselt number and local entropy generation rates. The reduced entropy generation in the enhanced tube serves as a performance criteria to confirm the positive effect of wire coil inserts in heat transfer for the operating regime under investigation, in spite of the increased pressure drop.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 26 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 January 2024

Sumant Kumar, B.V. Rathish Kumar, S.V.S.S.N.V.G. Krishna Murthy and Deepika Parmar

Thermo-magnetic convective flow analysis under the impact of thermal radiation for heat and entropy generation phenomena is an active research field for understanding the…

Abstract

Purpose

Thermo-magnetic convective flow analysis under the impact of thermal radiation for heat and entropy generation phenomena is an active research field for understanding the efficiency of thermodynamic systems in various engineering sectors. This study aims to examine the characteristics of convective heat transport and entropy generation within an inverted T-shaped porous enclosure saturated with a hybrid nanofluid under the influence of thermal radiation and magnetic field.

Design/methodology/approach

The mathematical model incorporates the Darcy-Forchheimer-Brinkmann model and considers thermal radiation in the energy balance equation. The complete mathematical model has been numerically simulated through the penalty finite element approach at varying values of flow parameters, such as Rayleigh number (Ra), Hartmann number (Ha), Darcy number (Da), radiation parameter (Rd) and porosity value (e). Furthermore, the graphical results for energy variation have been monitored through the energy-flux vector, whereas the entropy generation along with its individual components, namely, entropy generation due to heat transfer, fluid friction and magnetic field, are also presented. Furthermore, the results of the Bejan number for each component are also discussed in detail. Additionally, the concept of ecological coefficient of performance (ECOP) has also been included to analyse the thermal efficiency of the model.

Findings

The graphical analysis of results indicates that higher values of Ra, Da, e and Rd enhance the convective heat transport and entropy generation phenomena more rapidly. However, increasing Ha values have a detrimental effect due to the increasing impact of magnetic forces. Furthermore, the ECOP result suggests that the rising value of Da, e and Rd at smaller Ra show a maximum thermal efficiency of the mathematical model, which further declines as the Ra increases. Conversely, the thermal efficiency of the model improves with increasing Ha value, showing an opposite trend in ECOP.

Practical implications

Such complex porous enclosures have practical applications in engineering and science, including areas like solar power collectors, heat exchangers and electronic equipment. Furthermore, the present study of entropy generation would play a vital role in optimizing system performance, improving energy efficiency and promoting sustainable engineering practices during the natural convection process.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first ever attempted detailed investigation of heat transfer and entropy generation phenomena flow parameter ranges in an inverted T-shaped porous enclosure under a uniform magnetic field and thermal radiation.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 34 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 May 2021

Mohammad M. Rahman, Ziad Saghir and Ioan Pop

This paper aims to investigate numerically the free convective heat transfer efficiency inside a rectotrapezoidal enclosure filled with Al2O3–Cu/water hybrid fluid. The bottom…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate numerically the free convective heat transfer efficiency inside a rectotrapezoidal enclosure filled with Al2O3–Cu/water hybrid fluid. The bottom wall of the cavity is uniformly heated, the upper horizontal wall is insulated, and the remaining walls are considered cold. A new thermophysical relation determining the thermal conductivity of the hybrid nanofluid has been established, which produced results those match with experimental ones.

Design/methodology/approach

The governing partial differential equations are solved using the finite element method of Galerkin type. The simulated results in terms of streamlines, heat lines and isotherms are displayed for various values of the model parameters, which govern the flow.

Findings

The Nusselt number, friction factor and the thermal efficiency index are also determined for the pertinent parameters varying different ratios of the hybrid nanoparticles. The simulated results showed that thermal buoyancy significantly controls the heat transfer, friction factor and thermal efficiency index. The highest thermal efficiency is obtained for the lowest Rayleigh number.

Practical implications

This theoretical study is significantly relevant to the applications of the hybrid nanofluids electronic devices cooled by fans, manufacturing process, renewable energies, nuclear reactors, electronic cooling, lubrication, refrigeration, combustion, medicine, thermal storage, etc.

Originality/value

The results showed that nanoparticle loading intensified the rate of heat transfer and thermal efficiency index at the expense of the higher friction factor or higher pumping power. The results further show that the heat transmission in Al2O3–Cu/water hybrid nanofluid at a fixed value of intensified $\phi_{hnf}$ compared to the Al2O3/water nanofluid when an amount of higher conductivity nanoparticles (Cu) added to it. Besides, the rate of heat transfer in Cu/water nanofluid declines when the lower thermal conductivity Al2O3 nanoparticles are added to the mixture.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 32 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1995

F. Escanes, C. D. Pérez‐Segarra and A. Oliva

This paper deals with a numerical simulation of the thermal andfluid‐dynamic behaviour of double‐pipe condensers and evaporators. Thegoverning equations of the fluid flow…

Abstract

This paper deals with a numerical simulation of the thermal and fluid‐dynamic behaviour of double‐pipe condensers and evaporators. The governing equations of the fluid flow (continuity, momentum and energy) in both the tube (evaporating or condensing flow) and the annulus (single‐phase flow), together with the energy equation in the tube wall, are solved iteratively in a segregated manner using a one‐dimensional, transient formulation, based on an implicit step by step numerical scheme in the zones with fluid flow (tube and annulus), and an implicit central difference numerical scheme in the tube wall, solved by means of the Tri‐Diagonal Matrix Algorithm (TDMA). This formulation requires the use of empirical information for the evaluation of convective heat transfer, shear stress and void fraction. Two criteria to calculate the location of the points of transition between single‐phase and two‐phase flow are tested. An analysis of the different parameters used in the discretization is made. Some illustrative results corresponding to the solution of a condenser and an evaporator using two different working fluids (R–12 and R–134a) are presented.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 5 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2016

Hsien-Hung Ting and Shuhn-Shyurng Hou

The purpose of this paper is to numerically investigate the convective heat transfer of water-based CuO nanofluids flowing through a square cross-section duct under constant heat

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to numerically investigate the convective heat transfer of water-based CuO nanofluids flowing through a square cross-section duct under constant heat flux in the turbulent flow regime.

Design/methodology/approach

The numerical simulation is carried out at various Peclet numbers and particle concentrations (0.1, 0.2, 0.5, and 0.8 vol%). The finite volume formulation is used with the semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations algorithm to solve the discretized equations derived from the partial nonlinear differential equations of the mathematical model.

Findings

The heat transfer coefficients and Nusselt numbers of CuO-water nanofluids increase with increases in the Peclet number as well as particle volume concentration. Also, enhancement of the heat transfer coefficient is much greater than that of the effective thermal conductivity at the same nanoparticle concentration.

Research limitations/implications

Simulation of nanofluids turbulent forced convection at very high Reynolds number is worth for further study.

Practical implications

The heat transfer rates through non-circular ducts are smaller than the circular tubes. Nevertheless, the pressure drop of the non-circular duct is less than that of the circular tube. This study clearly presents that the nanoparticles suspended in water enhance the convective heat transfer coefficient, despite low volume fraction between 0.1 and 0.8 percent. Adding nanoparticles to conventional fluids may enhance heat transfer performance through the non-circular ducts, leading to extensive practical applications in industries for the non-circular ducts.

Originality/value

Few papers have numerically studied convective heat transfer properties of nanofluids through non-circular ducts. The present numerical results show a good agreement with the published experimental data.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 33 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 April 2017

Rajneesh Kumar, Anoop Kumar and Varun

The purpose of this computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based study on semicircular rib-roughened equilateral triangular duct is to investigate heat transfer, friction factor and

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based study on semicircular rib-roughened equilateral triangular duct is to investigate heat transfer, friction factor and thermohydraulic performance parameter. The analysis is carried out by simulating problem in ANSYS (Fluent). The Reynolds number in the study varies from 4,000 to 24,000. Nusselt number is calculated for different Reynolds number using various turbulent models available in ANSYS (Fluent) for a smooth duct and compared the results with the Dittus–Boelter correlation.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis has been done by solving basic fluid governing equations (continuity, momentum and energy) by using finite volume method (FVM). The semicircular ribs were fabricated on the absorber plate. The constant amount of heat flux is applied on the absorber plate, whereas other two walls are made adiabatic. The semi-implicit method for pressure linked equations (SIMPLE) algorithm is used with pressure–velocity-coupled disretization to estimate the results. The selection of turbulent model has been done on the basis of Nusselt number prediction in the smooth duct.

Findings

The renormalization-group kε model predicts the Nusselt number more accurately as compared to standard kε model, standard kω model, shear stress transport (SST) kω and realizable kε model in the Reynolds number ranges from 4,000 to 24,000 with a ± 5.5% deviation from Dittus–Boelter equation for smooth duct. The maximum thermo-hydraulic performance is observed of the order of 1.7 for arrangement which has a relative roughness height of 0.067 and relative roughness pitch of 7.5 at higher Reynolds Number of 24,000.

Originality/value

Although, many experimental studies are available in the area of rib-roughened ducts, the present study is based on CFD analysis of semicircular rib-roughened equilateral triangular duct and the results are predicted in terms of Nusselt number, friction factor and thermohydraulic performance parameter. Moreover, the predicted result of Nusselt number and friction factor is validated by comparing with Dittus–Boelter correlation and modified Blasius equation, respectively. This advantage made Fluent a powerful tool for analyzing the internal fluid flow through roughened ducts.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 27 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 August 2014

Ali J. Chamkha, M. Rashad and Rama Subba Reddy Gorla

The purpose of this paper is to present a boundary layer analysis for the mixed convection past a vertical wedge in a porous medium saturated with a power law type non-Newtonian…

284

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a boundary layer analysis for the mixed convection past a vertical wedge in a porous medium saturated with a power law type non-Newtonian nanofluid. Numerical results for friction factor, surface heat transfer rate and mass transfer rate have been presented for parametric variations of the buoyancy ratio parameter Nr, Brownian motion parameter Nb, thermophoresis parameter Nt, Lewis number Le and the power law exponent n. The dependency of the friction factor, surface heat transfer rate (Nusselt number) and mass transfer rate on these parameters has been discussed.

Design/methodology/approach

This general non-linear problem cannot be solved in closed form and, therefore, a numerical solution is necessary to describe the physics of the problem. An implicit, tri-diagonal finite-difference method has proven to be adequate and sufficiently accurate for the solution of this kind of problems. Therefore, it is adopted in the present study. Variable step sizes were used. The convergence criterion employed in this study is based on the difference between the current and the previous iterations. When this difference reached 10−5 for all the points in the η directions, the solution was assumed to be converged, and the iteration process was terminated.

Findings

The results indicate that as the buoyancy ratio parameter (Nr) and thermophoresis parameter (Nt) increase, the friction factor increases whereas the heat transfer rate (Nusselt number) and mass transfer rate (Sherwood number) decrease. As the Brownian motion parameter (Nb) increases, the friction factor and surface mass transfer rates increase whereas the surface heat transfer rate decreases. As Le increases, mass transfer rates increase. As the power law exponent n increases, the heat and mass transfer rates increase.

Research limitations/implications

The analysis is valid for natural convection dominated regime. The combined forced and natural convection dominated regimes will be reported in a future work.

Practical implications

The approach used is useful in optimizing the porous media heat transfer problems in geothermal energy recovery, crude oil extraction, ground water pollution, thermal energy storage and flow through filtering media.

Originality/value

The results of the study may be of some interest to the researchers of the field of porous media heat transfer. Porous foam and microchannel heat sinks used for electronic cooling are optimized utilizing the porous medium. The utilization of nanofluids for cooling of microchannel heat sinks requires understanding of fundamentals of nanofluid convection in porous media.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 24 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1998

Masoud Rokni and Bengt Sundén

The present investigation is an extension of the authors’ previous work on ducts with different cross sections. It concerns application of turbulence models for forced convective

Abstract

The present investigation is an extension of the authors’ previous work on ducts with different cross sections. It concerns application of turbulence models for forced convective heat transfer in three‐dimensional corrugated or wavy ducts. Different wavy ducts with fully developed flow and temperature fields are considered. The numerical approach is based on the finite volume technique with a non‐staggered grid arrangement. For handling the pressure‐velocity coupling the SIMPLEC‐algorithm is used. Cyclic boundary conditions are imposed in the main flow direction to achieve fully developed conditions. The non‐linear k‐ε model of Speziale with wall functions is used to calculate the turbulent stresses. The simple eddy diffusivity concept is applied to calculate the heat fluxes, but the GGDH and the WET methods are also used in some cases. The influence of the geometry parameters and comparison between different ducts are presented in terms of the friction factor and average Nusselt number. In particular the secondary velocity field and the cross sectional temperature distributions are investigated.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

1 – 10 of 688