Numerical prediction of turbulent flow and heat transfer in helically coiled pipes
Section snippets
Introduction: flow and heat transfer in curved pipes and coils
Although curved pipes are used in a wide range of applications, flow in curved pipes is relatively less well known than that in straight ducts. Following the pioneering studies of Boussinesq [1] and Thomson [2] in the 19th century, Grindley and Gibson [3] noticed the effect of curvature on the fluid flow during experiments on the viscosity of air. Williams et al. [4] observed that the location of the maximum axial velocity is shifted towards the outer wall of a curved pipe. Later, Eustice [5]
Numerical methods
The general purpose code ANSYS CFX 11 [28] was used for all the numerical simulations presented in this paper. The code employs a coupled technique, which simultaneously solves all the transport equations in the whole domain through a false time-step algorithm. The linearized system of equations is preconditioned in order to reduce all the eigenvalues to the same order of magnitude. The multi-grid approach reduces the low frequency error, converting it to a high frequency error at the finest
The data set
A parametrical computational study on flow and heat transfer in curved ducts was carried out by using the second order Reynolds Stress Model (RSM–ω), in which the boundary layer was explicitly resolved and the mesh resolution guaranteed y+ < 0.25 at the first grid point close to the wall even in the most critical condition. The Reynolds number Re was made to vary in the range 1.4·104–8·104, the Prandtl number Pr in the range 0.7–5.6 and the curvature δ in the range 0–0.3. The range chosen for
Conclusions
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first systematic attempt to assess the applicability of alternative turbulence models to the prediction of pressure drop and heat transfer in coiled tubes in a broad range of geometrical and physical conditions.
The comparison of alternative turbulence models showed that the SST k–ω eddy viscosity/eddy diffusivity model and the second order Reynolds Stress–ω model give comparable results for the friction coefficient f and the Nusselt number Nu,
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