Simulative analysis of turbulent flow through a circular conduit with uniform wall temperature and constant heat flux boundary conditions

• Main Authors: Belhocine, Ali, Wan Omar, Wan Zaidi
• Format: Article
• Published: Emerald Group Holdings Ltd. 2019
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/97074/; http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/WJE-06-2018-0188
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Purpose: This study aims to investigate numerically a two-dimensional fully developed mean turbulent fluid flow, and heat transfer in a circular duct is numerically investigated using FORTRAN 95 code that applies the finite difference method to solve the thermal problem for the two thermal boundary conditions, constant surface temperature, constant heat and steady, axisymmetric flow. Several important results have been drawn and discussed from thermal analysis. Finally, the numerical results of the model developed in the document have been validated in good accuracy by comparing them with some correlation results available in the specialized literature. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology of solving the thermal problem is based on the equation of energy for a fluid of constant properties while taking into consideration the hypothesis of the axisymmetric and fully developed pipe flow in steady state. The global equation and the initial and boundary conditions acting on the problem have been configured here in dimensionless form to predict the turbulent behavior of the fluid inside the tube. Thus, using Thomas' algorithm, a program in FORTRAN version 95 was developed to numerically solve the discretized form of the system of equations describing the problem. Findings: The profiles of the solutions are provided from which the authors infer that the numerical and literature correlation agreed very well. Another result that they obtained from this study is the number of Nusselt in the thermal entrance region to which a parametric study based on Reynolds and Peclet numbers, and the longitudinal coordinate, was carried out and discussed well for the impact of the scientific contribution. Originality/value: The novelty of the work is the application of the finite difference method programed on the FORTRAN code, as a sequential numerical method of an ODEs system, to determine the number of Nusselt in both uniform wall temperature and wall heat flux uniform.