CONJUGATE HEAT TRANSFER OF A FINNED OVAL TUBE PART A: FLOW PATTERNS

Abstract

Flow and conjugate heat transfer in a high-performance finned oval tube heat exchanger element have been calculated for a thermally and hydrodynamically developing three-dimensional laminar flow. The influence of Reynolds number in the range 100–500 has been studied. Computations have been performed with a finite volume method based on the SIMPLEC algorithm for pressure correction. Flow patterns and pressure distributions are presented. A helical vortex in the tube wake is observed. The shape of the separation zone in the tube wake shows a paraboloid.

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Notes on contributors

Y. Chen

Dr.-Ing. Y. Chen thanks DLR-IB for granting a scholarship from the German Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.