S. Jayavel

Numerical study of heat transfer and pressure drop for flow past inline and staggered tube bundles

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an indigenous three‐dimensional computational code and apply it to compare flow and heat transfer characteristics for inline and staggered arrangement of circular tubes in a tube bundle.Design/methodology/approach – A finite‐volume based computational code is developed to solve the momentum and energy equations for flow through a three‐dimensional rectangular channel and past built‐in tube bundles having inline and staggered arrangement. The approach is based on SIMPLE algorithm. The basic conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy are solved over a body‐fitting grid on the physical domain to obtain the flow and temperature fields.Findings – Heat transfer and pressure drop are compared for inline and staggered tube arrangements in a tube bundle over range of Reynolds numbers 300 ≤ Re ≤ 800. Results are validated suitably against those available in literature.Research implications – Tube‐fin heat exchangers with continuous fins on a tube array are ...

Numerical Study of Flow and Heat Transfer for Flow Past Inline Circular Tubes Built in a Rectangular Channel in the Presence of Vortex Generators

A three-dimensional numerical study has been carried out for laminar flow of air past an inline arrangement of circular tubes built-in with a rectangular channel in the presence of vortex generators. The governing equations of momentum and energy are solved with the help of a developed computational code based on finite-volume technique. Computed flow and temperature field results are analyzed with an aim to find an optimum location of vortex generators resulting in the maximum enhancement of heat transfer causing a minimum increase in pressure drop. To find the optimized location of vortex generators, the effect of variation of the Reynolds number on flow and heat transfer has also been studied.

Effect of Vortex Generators and Integral Splitter Plate on Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop for Laminar Flow Past Channel-Confined Tube Banks

Three-dimensional numerical computations are carried out to study heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics for laminar flow past circular tube banks in staggered and in-line arrangement confined within a narrow rectangular channel. A finite-volume based computational code has been developed for the computations. Vortex generators mounted near the upstream tube promote fluid mixing and enhance heat transfer in stagnant wake zone behind the tubes but offer extra pressure drop penalty. A splitter plate attached to the rear of the upstream circular tube acts as an extended heated surface and is expected to reduce the extra pressure drop due to vortex generators. The objective of this study is to find the configuration of tube arrangement in the presence of vortex generators and splitter plate that would be associated with enhanced heat transfer and reduced pressure drop. Heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics are presented for different lengths of the splitter plate in the absence and presence of vortex generators for both in-line and staggered arrangement of circular tubes.

Finite Volume Algorithm to Study the Effect of Tube Separation in Flow Past Channel Confined Tube Banks

Abstract Numerical investigations are carried out to study the effect of tube separation on flow and heat transfer characteristics for flow past circular tube bundles confined within a rectangular channel. The tube separation has been varied for cross flow of air past inline and staggered arrangements of tubes in such a way that in staggered arrangement, center of an upstream tube and centers of two respective downstream tubes from an equilateral triangle. A three-dimensional computational code based on SIMPLE method using finite volume technique has been developed to solve the governing equations. A body-fitted structured grid has been generated for discretization of the incompressible form of conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy. The flow and heat transfer characteristics for different values of tube separation have been compared using streamline plots, temperature contours, span-averaged pressure drop along length of the channel and span-averaged Nusselt number variation near heated/cooled surfaces.

Interaction of a skewed Rankine vortex pair

An analytical investigation is carried out to study the kinematics of a fluid particle in an interacting field of a skewed pair of fixed Rankine vortices. A general formulation governing the kinematics of a fluid particle has been presented based on the superposition of the velocity field due to each vortex in the pair. The kinematics of a Lagrangian fluid particle is found to be governed by a nonlinear dynamical system. The fixed or stationary points of the dynamical system have been identified analytically and their existence is confirmed by the nature of particle paths in the neighborhood of fixed points. The nature of the particle path and velocity signal is reported for general as well as special configurations of the vortex pair in the presence and absence of an external uniform flow. As a specific application of the proposed problem, superimposition of the translational velocity on a semi-infinite field of longitudinal vortices generated by vortex generators mounted on fin plates of heat exchangers...