ANALYSIS OF LAMINAR FORCED CONVECTION OF AIR FOR CROSSFLOW IN BANKS OF STAGGERED TUBES

Abstract

Numerical analysis is made of forced-convection heat transfer in laminar, two-dimensional, steady crossflow in banks of plain tubes in staggered arrangements. A finite-volume method with a nonorthogonal, boundary-fitted grid and co-located variable storage is used to solve the Navier-Stokes equations and energy conservation equation for a tube bundle with 10 longitudinal rows, including inlet and outlet sections. Local and overall heat transfer and fluid flow results are presented at nominal pitch-to-diameter ratios of 1.25, 1.5, and 2.0 for equilateral triangle and rotated square tube arrangements with Reynolds numbers of 100 and 300 and a Prandtl number of 0.71. Sensitivity of the local Nusselt number and friction coefficient distributions to the computational grid distribution is noted. A comparison of the present study results with well-established experiments and empirical correlations showed good overall agreement.