Flow Visualization of Airflow Through a Rectangular Duct With Combined Heat and Mass Transfer

Radiant ceiling panels have been shown to provide good thermal comfort for occupants and reduce energy consumption in large buildings. A disadvantage of radiant panels however, is the inability to alter the relative humidity (RH) of a space, which can also lead to occupant discomfort. A new panel is being developed which will transfer both heat and moisture to a room, to moderate space temperature and RH simultaneously. In order to determine how this panel performs, a test panel has been created and tested in an experimental facility. The panel is situated in the top of a rectangular duct. The surface of the panel is made of a porous membrane, which allows moisture to transfer between the air and the panel. Air passes through the duct and underneath the panel, at low Reynolds numbers (Re). As heat and moisture are transferred between the panel and the air, temperature and concentration gradients form in the duct. If these gradients become large, free convection will occur. Depending on which type of convection is dominant, free or forced, the air will flow in different patterns. In order to understand the performance of the panel, flow visualization is used to determine how the airflow is affected by temperature and concentration gradients. Test conditions include heating, cooling, humidification and dehumidification.

The MHD Flows for a Heated Generalized Oldroyd-B Fluid With Fractional Derivative

In this paper, we present a circular motion of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow for a heated generalized Oldroyd-B fluid. The fractional calculus approach is introduced to establish the constitutive relationship of a viscoelastic fluid. The velocity and temperature fields of the flow are described by fractional partial differential equations. Exact analytical solutions of velocity and temperature fields are obtained by using Hankel transform and Laplace transform for fractional calculus. Results for ordinary viscous flow are deduced by making the fractional order of differential tend to one and zero. It is shown that the fractional constitutive relation model is more useful than the conventional model for describing the properties of viscoelastic fluid.

Numerical Study on Heat Transfer Characteristics From Parallel Plates With Cavities Swept by a Visco-Elastic Fluid

Two-dimensional numerical computations have been performed in order to investigate the development characteristics of flow and thermal field in a flow between parallel plates swept by a visco-elastic fluid. In the present study, the effect of the cavity number in the domain and of Reynolds number was focused on when the geometric parameters were set constant. From the results, it is found that the flow penetration into the cavities effectively causes the heat transfer augmentation in the cavities in any cavity region compared with that of water case. It is also found that the development of thermal field in cases of the present visco-elastic fluid is quicker compared with that of water cases. The present heat transfer augmentation technique using Barus effect of a visco-elastic fluid is effective in the range of low Reynolds number.

Flow Structure and Heat Transfer in Stagnation Flow CVD Reactor

An experimental study is undertaken to investigate the flow structure and heat transfer in a stagnation flow Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) reactor at atmospheric pressure. It is critical to develop models that predict flow patterns in such a reactor to achieve uniform deposition across the substrate. Free convection can negatively affect the gas flow as cold inlet gas impinges on the heated substrate, leading to vortices and disturbances in the normal flow path. This experimental research will be used to understand the buoyancy-induced and momentum-driven flow structure encountered in an impinging jet CVD reactor. Investigations are conducted for various operating and design parameters. A modified stagnation flow reactor is built where the height between the inlet and substrate is reduced when compared to a prototypical stagnation flow reactor. By operating such a reactor at certain Reynolds and Grashof numbers it is feasible to sustain smooth and vortex free flow at atmospheric pressure. The modified stagnation flow reactor is compared to other stagnation flow geometries with either a varied inlet length or varied heights between the inlet and substrate. Comparisons are made to understand the impact of such geometric changes on the flow structure and the thermal boundary layer. In addition, heat transfer correlations are obtained for the substrate temperature. Overall, the results obtained provide guidelines for curbing the effects of buoyancy and for improving the flow field to obtain greater film uniformity when operating a stagnation flow CVD reactor at atmospheric pressure.

Approximate Analytical Solutions for Marangoni Mixed Convection Boundary Layer

The paper deals with a steady coupled dissipative layer, called Marangoni mixed convection boundary layer, which can be formed along the interface of two immiscible fluids, in surface driven flows. The mixed convection boundary layer is generated besides the Marangoni convection effects induced flow over the surface due to an imposed temperature gradient, there are also buoyancy effects due to gravity and external pressure gradient effects. We shall use a model proposed by Chamkha wherein the Marangoni coupling condition has been included into the boundary conditions at the interface. The similarity equations are first determined, and the approximate analytical solutions are obtained by an efficient transformation, asymptotic expansion and Pade´ approximant technique. The features of the flow and temperature fields as well as the interface velocity and heat transfer at the interface are discussed for some values of the governing parameters. The associated fluid mechanics was analyzed in detail.

Single-Phase Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Water Cooled Inside Horizontal Smooth Tubes in the Transitional Flow Regime

Heat exchangers are usually designed in such a way that they do not operate in the transition region. This is usually due to a lack of information in this region. However, due to design constraints, energy efficiency requirements or change of operating conditions, heat exchangers are often forced to operate in this region. It is also well known that entrance disturbances influence where transition occurs. The purpose of this paper is to present experimental heat transfer and pressure drop data in the transition region for fully developed and developing flows inside smooth tubes using water as the working fluid. The use of different inlet disturbances were used to investigate its effect on transition. A tube-in-tube heat exchanger was used to perform the experiments, which ranged in Reynolds numbers from 1 000 to 20 000, with Prandtl numbers being between 4 and 6 while Grashof numbers were in the order of 105. Results showed that the type of inlet disturbance could delay transition to a Reynolds number as high as 7 000, while other inlets expedited it, confirming results of others. For heat transfer, though, it was found that transition was independent of the inlet disturbance and all commenced at the same Reynolds number, 2 000–3 000, which was attributed to secondary flow effects.

Flow and Thermal Fields in a Pendant Droplet Moving on Lyophobic Surface

Clusters of liquid drops growing and moving on physically or chemically textured lyophobic surfaces are encountered in drop-wise mode of vapor condensation. As opposed to film-wise condensation, drops permit a large heat transfer coefficient and are hence attractive. However, the temporal sustainability of drop formation on a surface is a challenging task, primarily because the sliding drops eventually leach away the lyophobicity promoter layer. Assuming that there is no chemical reaction between the promoter and the condensing liquid, the wall shear stress (viscous resistance) is the prime parameter for controlling physical leaching. The dynamic shape of individual droplets, as they form and roll/slide on such surfaces, determines the effective shear interaction at the wall. Given a shear stress distribution of an individual droplet, the net effect of droplet ensemble can be determined using the time averaged population density during condensation. In this paper, we solve the Navier-Stokes and the energy equation in three-dimensions on an unstructured tetrahedral grid representing the computational domain corresponding to an isolated pendant droplet sliding on a lyophobic substrate. We correlate the droplet Reynolds number (Re = 10–500, based on droplet hydraulic diameter), contact angle and shape of droplet with wall shear stress and heat transfer coefficient. The simulations presented here are for Prandtl Number (Pr) = 5.8. We see that, both Poiseuille number (Po) and Nusselt number (Nu), increase with increasing the droplet Reynolds number. The maximum shear stress as well as heat transfer occurs at the droplet corners. For a given droplet volume, increasing contact angle decreases the transport coefficients.

Thermal Performance Assessment of Turbulent Flow Through Dimpled Tubes

This paper presents the heat transfer augmentation and friction factor characteristics by means of dimpled tubes. The experiments were conducted using the dimpled tubes with two different dimpled-surface patterns including aligned arrangement (A-A) and staggered arrangement (S-A), each with two pitch ratios (PR = p/Di = 0.6 and 1.0), for Reynolds number ranging from 9800 to 67,000. The experimental results achieved from the dimpled tubes are compared with those obtained from the plain tube. Evidently, the dimpled tubes with both arrangements offer higher heat transfer rates compared to the plain tube and the dimpled tube with staggered arrangement shows an advantage on the basis of heat transfer enhancement over the dimpled tube with aligned arrangement. The increase in heat transfer rate with reducing pitch ratio is due to the higher turbulent intensity imparted to the flow between the dimple surfaces. The mean heat transfer rate offered by the dimpled tube with staggered arrangement (S-A) at the lowest pitch ratio (PR = 0.6), is higher than those provided by the plain tube and the dimpled tube with aligned arrangement (A-A) at the same PR by around 127% and 8%, respectively. The empirical correlations developed in terms of pitch ratio (PR), Prandtl number (Pr) and Reynolds number, are fitted the experimental data within ±8% and ±2% for Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor (f), respectively. In addition, the thermal performance factors under an equal pumping power constraint of the dimple tubes for both dimpled-surface arrangements are also determined.

Numerical Analysis of Laminar Forced Convection in Sinusoidal-Wavy-, Rounded-Ellipse-, and Rounded-Vee-Shaped Corrugated-Plate Channels

Numerical analysis of steady, two-dimensional, laminar forced convection in corrugated-plate channels is performed using a commercial CFD code: ANSYS CFX. The flow domain consists of six modules in each of three wall corrugations: sinusoidal-wavy-shaped (SWS), rounded-ellipse-shaped (RES), and rounded-vee-shaped (RVS). One ratio of minimum-to-maximum plate spacings and one module length-to-height ratio is considered. Fluid flow and heat transfer are repeating in the modules and the results are examined in a typical module in the fully-developed region for Reynolds numbers in the range of 25 to 300 for Prandtl numbers of 0.7 (air), 2.29 (water), and 34.6 (ethylene glycol). The RES corrugation produced the highest peak value of local Nusselt number as well as the highest friction factor. The SWS corrugation produced the highest average Nusselt number, except at a Prandtl number of 34.6 at higher Reynolds number where the RES corrugation had the highest value. The RVS corrugation had the lowest friction factor for the geometric configuration considered. The highest heat transfer rate per unit pumping power was found at the highest Prandtl number for the RES corrugation.

Turbulent Thermal Diffusion Over a Locally-Heated Two-Dimensional Hill

We measure flow and thermal fields over a locally heated two-dimensional hill. The heated sections on the wall are divided into upstream and downstream portions of the hill model. These sections are heated independently, yielding various thermal boundary conditions in contrast to the uniformly heated case. In the separated region formed behind the hill, it is found that the mean temperature profiles in the uniformly heated case are well decomposed into the separately heated cases. This is because the velocity fluctuation produced by the shear layer formed behind the hill is large, so the superposition of a passive scalar in the thermal field can be successfully realized. The rapid increase in the mean temperature near the uniformly heated wall should be due to the heat transfer near the leeward slope of the hill. On the other hand, the mean temperature distributions away from the wall are strongly affected by the turbulent thermal diffusion on the windward side of the hill.