A numerical study of laminar heat convection in ducts of irregular cross-sections

Journal Article · Wed Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997 · International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0735-1933(97)00070-5· OSTI ID:531511

Uzun, I ^[1]; Uensal, M ^[2]

---

1. Univ. of Kirikkale (Turkey). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
2. Univ. of Gaziantep (Turkey). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

Prediction of laminar flow convective heat transfer rates in ducts of both arbitrary and irregularly shaped boundaries is important for the proper design of compact heat exchangers and other heat transfer equipment. Forced convective heat transfer during hydrodynamically fully developed laminar fluid flow inside ducts of irregular cross section is analyzed utilizing numerical methods. The elliptic grid generation technique is used to transform the partial differential equations of an arbitrary and irregular physical plane from the physical domain into a square shaped computational domain. The problem is then solved for both uniform wall temperature and uniform wall heat flux boundary conditions. Numerical results for the friction factor and the Nusselt number are presented for triangular, rhombic, sinusoidal, and irregular cross sections typically used in heat exchangers. The numerical results are compared with those previously reported in the literature.

• OSTI ID: 531511
• Journal Information: International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, Journal Name: International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 24; ISSN 0735-1933; ISSN IHMTDL
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
DESIGN
DUCTS
FORCED CONVECTION
FRICTION FACTOR
HEAT EXCHANGERS
LAMINAR FLOW
MESH GENERATION
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
NUSSELT NUMBER