ENERGY PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT, FLOW BEHAVIOR AND HEAT TRANSFER INVESTIGATION IN A CIRCULAR TUBE WITH V-DOWNSTREAM DISCRETE BAFFLES

Abstract

A mathematical study has been carried out to examine periodic laminar flow and heat transfer characteristics in a three-dimensional isothermal wall circular tube with 45° in-line V-discrete baffles. The computations are based on the Finite Volume Method (FVM) and the SIMPLE algorithm has been implemented. The fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics are presented for Reynolds numbers based on the diameter of the circular tube ranging from 100 to 1200. To generate main streamwise vortex flows through the tested section, V-discrete baffles with an attack angle of 45° are mounted in tandem with in-line arrangement and pointing downstream (V-Downstream) inserted in the middle of the tested tube. Effects of different Blockage Ratio (b/D, BR) and Pitch Ratio (P/D, PR) on heat transfer and pressure drop in the tube are studied. It is apparent that the main vortex flows can induce impinging flows on a wall of the interbaffle cavity leading to extreme increases in heat transfer rate over the circular tube. In addition, the rise in the BR and reduce of PR results in the increase in the Nusselt number and friction factor values. The computational results show that the optimum thermal enhancement factor is around 2.5 at BR = 0.15, PR = 1 and Re = 1200.