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International Journal of Fluid Mechanics Research
50(6):1–10 (2023)
CFD INVESTIGATION OF HEAT TRANSFER ON FOUR CYLINDERS IN IN-LINE SQUARE ARRANGEMENT EQUIPPED WITH SPLITTER PLATES
Zerrouki Djilali,
1
Ladjedel Omar,
1
Kahil Yacine,
1
Morad Belharizi,
2
Adjlout Lahouari,
1
Yahiaoui Tayeb,
3,
* Sikula Ondrej,
3
Zemmani Farah,
4
& Belhadj Senini Lina Wafaa
4
1
Laboratory of Naval Aero-Hydrodynamics, Mechanical Engineering Faculty, USTO Oran, Algeria
2
Laboratory of Aeronautics and Propulsion Systems, Mechanical Engineering Faculty, USTO Oran, Algeria
3
Brno University of Technology, Civil Engineering Faculty, Veveří 331/95 Brno 60200, Czechia
4
Laboratory of Maritime Sciences and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Faculty, USTO Oran, Algeria
*Address all correspondence to: Yahiaoui Tayeb, Brno University of Technology, Civil Engineering Faculty,
Veveří 331/95 Brno 60200, Czechia; Tel.: +420 54114 7923, E-mail: yahiaoui_tayeb@yahoo.fr
Original Manuscript Submied: 8/10/2022; Final Draft Received: 7/24/2023 A numerical study was carried out for heat transfer in ow past four cylinders in in-line square arrangement with a pitch-to-diameter ratio L/D = 4.2. Computational uid dynamics (CFD) computations were performed for Reynolds numbers of 9300 and 20,000 to investigate passive control using a rectangular splier plate placed on the rear side of the cylinders. Three dierent congurations were considered: the rst one contains only smooth cylinders, the second uses cylinders equipped with splier plate in the upstream row, and the third conguration where all cylinders have a splier plate. The steady-state Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations were solved using a nite volume method, where the k-ω SST turbulence model was used to produce a closed system of solvable equations. Results of the simulations in terms of temperature and Nusselt number distributions for all cylinders are presented and compared. The eect of new congurations on the heat transfer is well demonstrated, where a drop of about 7.92% in Nusselt number is reported using the splier plate.
KEY WORDS:
heat transfer, splier plate, Nusselt number, turbulence
1. INTRODUCTION
Understanding the behavior of uid ow around cylinder arrays is important in various elds, including aerospace engi
-
neering, civil engineering, and renewable energy. The study of uid ow around a bank of cylinders arranged in dierent congurations is a multidisciplinary research area that combines experimental and numerical techniques to gain insights into complex uid dynamics and enhance the design and performance of various engineering systems. In industry, the application often found is the behavior of ow around tube bundles in heat exchangers, particularly when the ow is transverse. Controlling ow and heat transfer in a tube bundle is important in various industrial applications, such as heat exchangers and boilers. Several techniques can be employed to optimize ow distribution and enhance heat transfer
within the tube bundle. Convective heat transfer around two tandem circular cylinders has been investigated by research-
ers such as Buyruk (2002), Juncu (2007), Mahir and Altac (2008, 2017), Harimi and Saghaan (2012), in which they
International Journal of Fluid Mechanics Research
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Djilali et al.
conducted in-depth studies to understand the eects of spacing ratio, Reynolds number, and Prandtl number on the uid ow pattern as well as the forced convective heat transfer rate. They found that the heat transfer coecients increase with the increase of Reynolds number and the distance between the two cylinders. Ladjedel et al. (2017) investigated numeri
-cally heat transfer on two grooved cylinders in tandem arrangement with
L
/
D
= 4.2 and
Re
= 2 × 10
4
. They found that
for the tested Reynolds number, the local Nusselt number for the downstream cylinder exhibits a double hump. A drop of 15% in the Nusselt number is found when grooves are used. Even though the two-cylinder congurations have been studied extensively, the four-cylinder congurations have not been widely investigated because of factors like complex
-
ity of vortex shedding and the number of geometrical parameters involved. The square conguration of four cylinders is a commonly studied geometry in the context of ow and heat transfer. Research on the square bundle conguration has explored various aspects related to ow distribution, pressure drop, and heat transfer characteristics (Lam and Lo, 1992; Lam and Fang, 1995; Lam et al., 2003a,b). Most of the published experiments have been conducted either in the laminar regime;
Re
= 100‒200, mainly for the study of ow visualization, or in the subcritical regime;
Re
= 10
3
‒10
4
, for pressure, velocity, drag and lift measurements. On the other hand, numerical simulations have been performed on the four-cylinder conguration by using dierent methods and techniques (Lam et al., 2008; Lam and Zou, 2010; Zhao and Cheng, 2012; Tong et al., 2014; Gao et al., 2017, 2019; Han et al., 2013; Kahil et al., 2018). Several similar experimental and numerical studies also discussed the ow characteristics for four cylinders, square (Liu et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2021), elliptical (Puliyeri et al., 2021), and grooved (Ladjedel et al., 2015). Their results conrm that the ow characteristics of multiple cylinders strongly depend on geometrical parameters and the attack angle, which aect the stability and the complexity of ow elds and enhance the interactions between cylinders. Some numerical studies have been performed, for example, by Esfahani and Vasel-Be-Hagh (2012), using the lattice Boltzmann method to determine heat transfer characteristics at various Reynolds numbers. They found that the maximum heat transfer rate of the square unit is related to the stagnation point of the upstream cylinder, where the mean Nusselt number is higher. They also found that if the Reynolds number increases, the thermal shear layer thickness decreases for all cylinders. Kim (2013) investigated the eect of the longitu
-
dinal pitch on the single-phase heat transfer characteristics in cross ow over in-line tube banks. He found that an aspect ratio greater than 2.7 does not aect heat transfer, although the reduction of pitch ratios less than 2.7 leads to a reduction
in heat transfer.
The ow characteristics of multiple cylinders in a conguration, such as the presence of a splitter plate, are inu
-
enced by various geometrical parameters. These parameters play a crucial role in determining the ow patterns, pressure drop, and heat transfer performance within the cylinder group. Many researchers have investigated the eect of splitter plate on uid characteristics such as the vortex shedding, pressure distributions, and drag and lift coecients (Akilli et al., 2005, 2008; Vu et al., 2015; and An et al., 2019). Razavi et al. (2008) investigated the eect of a splitter plate length on ow-induced forces and the heat transfer behavior of a circular cylinder at low Reynolds numbers (20 <
Re
< 1000). A signicant reduction in the drag coecient as well as the average Nusselt number was observed in the presence of a splitter plate, implying stabilization of the wake region and reduction of the vortex shedding. However, the conductive heat transfer was increased as a result of the extra heat transfer area generated by the splitter plate, upon which the overall heat transfer of the system was improved.The purpose of this study is to investigate numerically the heat transfer mechanism and to exhibit the inuence of controlling the ow over square in-line four cylinders. The square bundle conguration serves as a benchmark case for ow and heat transfer studies, allowing researchers to investigate fundamental phenomena and develop practical design guidelines. The use of a splitter plate in a group of cylinders could indeed have a signicant eect on heat transfer en
-
hancement. It could alter the ow patterns, promote better mixing, and enhance heat transfer within the cylinder group. The ndings from these studies can be extrapolated and applied to other tube bundle congurations or more complex
geometries.
2. NUMERICAL PROCEDURE
In the present study, the dimensionless governing equations with the appropriate boundary conditions are solved us
-
ing the nite volume method (FVM) by employing a structured grid. The commercial CFD software Ansys
−
Fluent is used to solve the governing equations. The semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations (SIMPLE) algorithm is used to determine the pressure eld, while the quadratic upwind interpolation for convective kinematics (QUICK)
Heat Transfer on Four Cylinders in In-Line Square Arrangement Equipped with Splitter
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Volume 50, Issue 6, 2023
scheme is used to discretize the convection terms in the momentum and energy equations. The Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes RANS equations for continuity and momentum conservation can be written as
U x
j j
0
(1)
xU U xU xu u P x
j j i ji j j ji
( )
(2)The local Nusselt number is evaluated since the conductive heat transfer rate of the uid over solid boundary equals its convective heat transfer rate, which can be written as follows:
k T nh T T
wall w
( )
(3)
Nu h Dk
(4)The heat transfer around cylinders is governed by the following expression:
C V T k T
p
( )
* * *
2
0
(5)The average Nusselt number is obtained by integrating this value over the surface of the cylinder, which is dened
as
Nu Nu d
1
0
( )
(6)
The
k-
ω
SST
turbulence model is used, which can be written as:
t
k
*
(7)
Dk Dt U x f k xk x
iji j jt k j
*
*
(8)
International Journal of Fluid Mechanics Research
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Djilali et al.
D Dt k U x f k x x
ijt j jt j
2
(9)where the specic dissipation rate is
k
1
. (10)The present study is limited for subcritical
Re
of 9.3 × 10
3
and 2 × 10
4
, as it is also adopted by other authors for similar studied problems with identical parameters. Reynolds numbers (
Re
=
DU
∞
/
ν
) have been based on the oncom
-ing free-stream velocities
U
∞
of 3.25 and 7.5 m/s, respectively, while the outlet boundary is considered as pressure outlet having atmospheric pressure along the boundary. The owing uid is air with an imposed inlet temperature
T
inlet
= 298.15 K and constant physical properties at Prandtl number
Pr
= 0.71. As shown in Fig. 1, the four circular cylinders are placed in an in-line square arrangement and maintained with a constant surface temperature
T
wall
= 318.15 K. Longitudinal and transverse distances between the center points of two adjacent cylinders are 4.2
D
, where
D
= 40
mm. Figure 2 illustrates the shape and geometrical dimensions of the splitter plate, and Table 1 summarizes the dier
-
ent congurations tested in the present study. To be consistent with the literature and to ensure that the occurrence of vortex shedding can be observed for a range of 9.3 × 10
3
<
Re
< 2 × 10
4
, the distance between the center points of two
adjacent circular cylinders is 4.2
D
, which enables comparison with the literature (Ladjedel et al., 2015, 2017). Since the eect of the arrangement of four square cylinders on the ow and heat transfer is mainly highlighted in this work, when the thermal buoyancy is imposed, the selection of the above parameters is reasonable to explore the interactions between the four square cylinders. Splitter plate length was taken to be
L
= 5 mm = 0.125
D
, and its thickness was set
S
= 3 mm = 0.075
D
. This choice is justied in that Gerrard (1966) showed that vortex shedding frequency decreased at
Re
= 2 × 10
4
when the splitter length
L
is shorter than the cylinder’s diameter,
L
/
D
< 1, but it increased for 1 <
L
/
D
< 2.
FIG. 1:
Computational domain with boundary conditions