Coupled three-dimensional conduction and natural convection heat transfer

Thesis/Dissertation · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:6158253

Tolpadi, A K

A numerical and experimental investigation of three-dimensional (3-D) natural-convection heat transfer coupled with conduction has bene performed. A vectorized finite-difference code was developed for the Cray-2 supercomputer which has the capability of simulating a wide class of three-dimensional coupled conduction-convection problems. This program numerically solves the transient form of the complete laminar Navier-Stokes equations of motion using the vorticity-vector potential method. Using this program, numerical solutions were obtained for 3-D natural convection from a horizontal isothermal heat exchanger tube with an attached circular conducting fin array. Solutions were obtained for a Rayleigh number of 10/sup 6/ and a Prandtl number of 5. A parametric study was performed by varying the fin length, fin spacing, fin thickness, and the fin conductivity parameter. Experiments were performed to measure three-dimensional temperature fields using Mach-Zehnder interferometry. Measurement of a 2-D temperature field is comparatively straightforward, however, reconstruction of a 3-D field requires that interferograms be recorded along several directions.

• Research Organization: Minnesota Univ., Minneapolis (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6158253
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420400* -- Engineering-- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990220 -- Computers
Computerized Models
& Computer Programs-- (1987-1989)
COMPUTER CODES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COMPUTERS
CONVECTION
CRAY COMPUTERS
ENERGY TRANSFER
FINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD
HEAT TRANSFER
ITERATIVE METHODS
MASS TRANSFER
NATURAL CONVECTION
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
SIMULATION
THERMAL CONDUCTION
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS