Zerrouki Et Al - CFD INVESTIGATION OF HEAT TRANSFER ON FOUR CYLINDERS IN IN-LINE SQUARE ARRANGEMENT EQUIPPED WITH SPLITTER PLATES

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1
 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 Submied: 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 splier plate placed on the rear side of the cylinders. Three dierent congurations were considered: the rst one contains only smooth cylinders, the second uses cylinders equipped with splier plate in the upstream row, and the third conguration where all cylinders have a splier 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 eect of new congurations on the heat transfer is well demonstrated, where a drop of about 7.92% in Nusselt number is reported using the splier plate.
KEY WORDS:
 heat transfer, splier 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 dierent congurations 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 Saghaan (2012), in which they
 
 International Journal of Fluid Mechanics Research
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Djilali et al.
conducted in-depth studies to understand the eects 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 coecients 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 congurations have been studied extensively, the four-cylinder congurations have not been widely investigated because of factors like complex
-
ity of vortex shedding and the number of geometrical parameters involved. The square conguration of four cylinders is a commonly studied geometry in the context of ow and heat transfer. Research on the square bundle conguration 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 conguration by using dierent 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 conrm that the ow characteristics of multiple cylinders strongly depend on geometrical parameters and the attack angle, which aect 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 eect 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 aect 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 conguration, such as the presence of a splitter plate, are inu
-
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 eect of splitter  plate on uid characteristics such as the vortex shedding, pressure distributions, and drag and lift coecients (Akilli et al., 2005, 2008; Vu et al., 2015; and An et al., 2019). Razavi et al. (2008) investigated the eect 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 signicant reduction in the drag coecient 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 inuence of controlling the ow over square in-line four cylinders. The square bundle conguration 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 signicant eect 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 congurations 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)
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Heat Transfer on Four Cylinders in In-Line Square Arrangement Equipped with Splitter
3
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
 
 x
 j j
0 
(1)
 
         
 xU  x xu u  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:
 
      
 
 nh T
wall w
( )
 (3)
 
 Nu h D
 (4)The heat transfer around cylinders is governed by the following expression:
 
C V T k
 p
( )
* * *
2
0
 (5)The average Nusselt number is obtained by integrating this value over the surface of the cylinder, which is dened
as 
 Nu Nu
1
0
 
( )
 (6)
The
k-
ω
 SST 
 turbulence model is used, which can be written as:
 
 
*
 (7)
 
 
 Dk  Dt  x f  x x
iji j jk j
        
*
*
 (8)
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 International Journal of Fluid Mechanics Research
4
Djilali et al.
 
   
 D Dt  x f  x x
ij j j j
        
2
 (9)where the specic dissipation rate is
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
 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
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
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 dier 
-
ent congurations 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 eect 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 justied 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
5
5
5
5
5
5
5

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