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An experimental study and CFD analysis towards heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of decaying swirl pipe flow generated by axial vanes

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Abstract

In this presentation, influences of axial vane swirler on heat transfer augmentation and fluid flow are investigated both experimentally and numerically. The swirl generator is installed at the inlet of the annular duct to generate decaying swirling pipe flow. Three different blade angels of 30°, 45° and 60° were examined. Meanwhile, flow rate was adjusted at Reynolds numbers ranging from 10000 to 30000. Study has been done under uniform heat flux condition and air was used as working fluid. Experimental results confirm that the use of vane swirler leads to a higher heat transfer compared with those obtained from plain tubes. Depending on blade angle, overall Nusselt augmentation is found from 50% to 110% while friction factor increases by the range of 90–500%. Thermal Performance evaluation has been done for test section and test section together with swirler. In both cases, thermal performance increases as vane angle is raised and decreases by growth of Re number. When increasing the blade angle, higher decay rate has been observed for local Nusselt number. In CFD analysis, time-averaged governing equations were solved numerically and RSM model was applied as the turbulence model. Here, the simulation results of axial and tangential velocities, turbulent kinetic energy, wall stresses and swirl intensity are provided. They illustrate the effect of swirling pattern on mean flow and turbulence structure, as well as on improving heat transfer enhancement in the annular duct.

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Abbreviations

c p :

thermal capacity, J kg−1 K−1

D :

pipe diameter, m

E :

electrical power, W

f :

friction factor

h :

convective heat transfer coefficient

I :

turbulence intensity

ID :

internal pipe diameter, m

k :

turbulence kinetic energy

l :

turbulence length scale

L :

length in axial direction, m

Nu :

Nusselt number

\(\dot{m}\) :

mass flow rate, kg s−1

OD :

outer pipe diameter, m

P :

pressure, Pa

Pr :

Prandtl number

q″:

heat flux, W m−2

\(\dot{Q}\) :

heat flow rate, W

r :

radial direction, m

R :

pipe radius, m

Re :

Reynolds number

S :

swirl number

T :

temperature, K

u′:

general velocity fluctuation, m/s

U :

general velocity component, m/s

V :

tangential velocity, m/s

W :

axial velocity, m/s

y :

distance from the wall, m

z :

axial direction, m

α :

blade angle to pipe axis, deg

ε :

turbulence dissipation rate

μ :

dynamic viscosity

υ :

kinematics viscosity

λ :

thermal conductivity

ρ :

density

θ :

tangential direction

τ :

shear stress

ave :

average

b :

bulk

b-in :

bulk-inlet

b-out :

bulk-outlet

c :

central pipe line

fd :

fully developed

m :

mean

s :

swirling flow

t :

turbulence flow

wall :

pipe wall

wi :

inner pipe wall

wo :

outer pipe wall

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Energy Engineering, Power and Water University of Technology, Tehran, 16765-1719, Iran

    M. Ahmadvand, A. F. Najafi & S. Shahidinejad

Authors
  1. M. Ahmadvand
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  2. A. F. Najafi
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  3. S. Shahidinejad
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Correspondence to A. F. Najafi.

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Ahmadvand, M., Najafi, A.F. & Shahidinejad, S. An experimental study and CFD analysis towards heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of decaying swirl pipe flow generated by axial vanes. Meccanica 45, 111–129 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11012-009-9228-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11012-009-9228-9

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