CFD Analysis of the Effect of Different Inlet Geometries on Combined Convection Heat Transfer

A numerical investigation of the effect of different inlet geometries on air flow combined convection heat transfer inside a horizontal circular pipe was undertaken. Simulations are carried out for Reynolds number range 400- 1600 and the Grashof number range 6.96×105-1.72×106. The heated section was assumed an aluminum circular pipe with 30 mm inside diameter and 900mm length. The inlet configuration used in this paper are calming sections having the same inside diameter as the heated pipe, but with different lengths of Lcalm = 600 mm, Lcalm = 2400mm, and Bellmouth. It was found that the surface temperature increases, as the calming section length increases. It was also observedthat the surface temperature decrease beyond a maximum point. The results were compared with available experimental results and it shows reasonable agreement.

Keywords:

Combined convection , Heat exchanger , Inlet geometry , CFD