Author(s)

Z. S. Abdel-Rehim

Abstract

Heat transfer and fluid flow over an in-line tube bank using a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) prediction is presented in this study. The study considers steady laminar two-dimensional incompressible flow over in-line tube bundles used in heat exchanger applications. The effect of various independent parameters, such as Reynolds number (Re), length aspect ratio (L/D = 2.5, 2, 1.5, 1.0, 0.5 and 0.0), and fluid flow on the pressure drop and heat transfer is studied. A computer code (CFD-Fluent) is used, generally, to predict the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of flows around or through rigid complex geometry, namely domains whose boundaries do not coincide with coordinate lines of a Cartesian or any simple coordinate system. A comparison is made between the present CFD predictions and reference measurements (Iwaki, et al. PIV Measurement of Vertical Cross Flow Structure over Tube Bundles, Experiments in Fluids, 2004) for the velocity vector as fluid flow over a cylinder in cross flow for the selected values of Reynolds numbers ReD. Therefore, the comparison is made between the present CFD results and Martin empirical correlation of an in-line circular tube for the variation of Nu with ReD. A reasonable agreement is observed. The results of the present study provide sufficient confidence in using empirical correlations to undertake initial sizing of tube bank heat exchanger design, with thermo-fluid performance subsequently predicted by CFD analysis for specific requirement applications. Keywords: CFD prediction, fluid flow, in-line arrangement, laminar flow, length aspect ratio, tube bank. 1 Introduction Heat transfer enhancement is the process of improving the performance of a heat transfer system by increasing the heat transfer coefficient. Flat tubes have not

Keywords

CFD prediction, fluid flow, in-line arrangement, laminar flow, length aspect ratio, tube bank