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The objective of the present numerical study is to investigate the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of various circular (plain circular fin, crimped spiral fin, serrated fin) and plate fins [plain plate fin, wavy fin and fin with punched delta winglet pair (DWP)]. The geometrical parameters are, tube outer diameter (OD) = 7 mm, fin spacing (S) = 3–7 mm, fin height ( h f ) = 5 mm, number of tube rows ( N r ) = 2, transverse tube pitch ( P t ) = 23 mm and longitudinal tube pitch ( P l ) = 18 mm. The Reynolds number based on hydraulic diameter has been considered in the range of 2500 ⩽ Re h ⩽ 4000. The circular fins outdo the plate fin in terms of the heat transfer coefficient and the heat transfer per unit pumping power for the circular fins has been found to be 140–170% higher as compared to the plate fins for a fixed Reynolds number. Local Nusselt number around the periphery of the tubes showed that fin patterns affect the wake region formation and flow separation on the tube surface. It has been observed that heat transfer coefficient decreases with an increase in the fin spacing due to increase in bypass flow rate through the heat exchanger at a constant Reynolds number. The heat transfer per unit pumping power showed an increase of more than 100% with an increase in the fin spacing from 3 to 6 mm. The flow patterns have been studied in detail for serrated fin, crimped fin and fin with DWP. The vortices generated by the fins merge with the horseshoe vortices and enhances the heat transfer in the domain. The fin efficiency has been found to be in the range of 77–83% for the circular fins and 55–66% for the plate fins for a range of 2500 ⩽ Re h ⩽ 4000. Only one circular fin design i.e., crimped fin provides higher volume goodness factor as compared to the plate fins. In general it has been observed that more compact heat exchanger can be designed using plate fins but at a higher pumping power cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to investigate thermal–hydraulic characteristics of an air cooled condenser and optimized the design in terms of heat transfer per unit pumping power, area goodness factor, volume goodness factor and material requirement using the 3D numerical simulations. The annular-finned tubes have been considered in this study, which is one of the most common type of fin used for the design of air cooled heat exchangers and known to provide a high heat transfer coefficient per unit pressure drop. The effect of tube shape (elliptical and round), tube diameter [7–24 mm (circular), 30 × 10–30 × 20 mm (elliptical)], fin spacing (2–10 mm), number of rows (2–10), fin height (5–10 mm), air frontal velocity (4.76–6.32 m/s), transverse tube pitch (36.8–44 mm) on the thermal–hydraulic performance has been studied. It is observed that, with an increase in the fin spacing, the heat transfer coefficient increases (by 35–40%) at a constant inlet velocity and the pressure drop decreases (by 60–80%). The frontal area requirement increases by 100–150% with an increase in the fin spacing for the same heat removal capacity. As the row number is increased, the heat transfer coefficient increases initially for N r < 4 by 7–8%, and for N r > 4, the heat transfer coefficient decreases by 23%. An increase in the tube pitch increases the heat transfer coefficient per unit pressure drop by 40%. The fin efficiency is found to decrease with an increase in the Reynolds number, fin spacing and number of tube rows. In the last section optimization of the design has been performed based on Taguchi method and numerical results obtained. It has been observed that the number of tube rows must be kept between 2–4, fin spacing 3–5 mm, tube pitch around 40 mm, and fin height 5 mm for better performance of the condenser. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to investigate the transient 3D numerical simulations of natural convection of air around a circular finned tube (24.9 mm OD ) kept in a small chimney. The annular plain fins are considered in this study. The effects of fin spacing to fin diameter ratio (0.057 mm ⩽ S / D f ⩽ 0.24 mm), chimney height (400–1000 mm) and ambient to surface temperature difference (10 K ⩽ T s ⩽ 65 K) on the heat transfer and the driving force have been investigated. The results are presented in terms of the temperature contours, velocity vectors, heat transfer and the driving force. It has been found that the heat transfer coefficient increases with an increase in the fin spacing upto an optimum value ( S = 8 mm) for all the fin geometries, and beyond S = 8 mm, the heat transfer coefficient decreases. The separation of the thermal boundary layer with a variation in the fin spacing and its effects on the heat transfer and driving force has been shown. For a fixed fin spacing, the heat transfer rate, heat transfer coefficient and the driving force increases with an increase in the fin diameter, however, for D f > 41 mm, the rate of increase in the heat transfer coefficient reduces. The heat transfer coefficient increases with an increase in the chimney height and it has been found that the effect of chimney height on the heat transfer coefficient is a resultant effect of the air outlet temperature and the driving force generated by the chimney. The base to ambient temperature difference has been varied to observe the temperature sensitivity on the heat transfer coefficient and flow patterns. In the last section, various circular and elliptical tube designs have been investigated, and it is found that, the elliptical tube with minimum ellipticity ( b / a = 0.33) and circular tube with smallest diameter (7 mm) provides better heat transfer coefficient than the other circular and elliptical designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many advanced designs of nuclear reactors adopt a methodology of passive safety systems in order to avoid the occurence of a severe accident. In one of such systems, the decay heat generated from a reactor is transferred by natural circulation into large pool of water called the Gravity Driven Water Pool (GDWP). Three-dimensional (3D) convection flows develop, which in turn affect the heat transfer process and hence the temperature pattern. The heat transfer process can get compromised by the possible stratification of the temperature. Further, the material of construction of GDWP may have certain temperature limitations and puts bounds on the extent of stratification. The objective of this study is to investigate the 3D natural circulation phenomenon in GDWP. The present work is in continuation of our earlier work Gandhi et al. [1,2] where the natural convection has been analyzed in 0.025 and 0.21 m 3 vessels. Now, we have reported the simulation for 9247 m 3 GDWP tank. Single phase CFD simulations using open source CFD code [OpenFOAM-1.6] have been performed for a geometry (ID = 12 m, OD = 50 m and height (H T ) = 5 m). In order to reduce the thermal stratification, various geometrical modifications have been incorporated on the heat exchanger design, such as (1) distributing the heat transfer area of heat exchanger among single, double and multiple heat sources (2) to optimize the location of heat exchanger inside the GDWP (3) provision of passive elements such as draft tubes (single or concentric multiple) around the heat source at the center, which can act as a chimney. A detailed CFD analysis of three dimensional temperature and velocity distribution in the secondary side of GDWP has confirmed the mitigation of thermal stratification phenomenon by optimizing the distribution and position of heat exchangers. Passive draft tubes also result in significant enhancement in natural circulation and hence reduction in thermal stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work is to investigate the transient 3D numerical simulations of natural convection of air around a circular cylinder (76.2 mm OD ) enclosed in a box of 1000 mm × 600 mm × 1200 mm for a Rayleigh number of 1.3 × 10 6 . The 2D numerical simulations have also been performed and the comparison between the 2D and 3D simulations has been presented in terms of the Nusselt number. The effect of clearance between the top wall and the cylinder (0.2 ⩽ H ∗ / D ⩽ 2.3) on the flow pattern has also been investigated for the case of conducting ceiling. The flow becomes 3D, unstable and oscillating when the H ∗ / D ratio is 0.2, and as the H ∗ / D ratio is increased to 0.4, 1 and then to 2.3; the flow becomes 2D and stable. The studies of Cesini et al. (1999) [5] and Newport et al. (2001) [7] have also been analyzed by 2D and 3D numerical simulations. The flow shows 3D, unstable and oscillatory behavior in the case of Cesini et al. (1999) [5] due to the wall-cylinder interaction. However, the flow was found to be 2D and stable for the case of Newport et al. (2001) [7]. A comparison between our results and their numerical and experimental results has been presented. The time varying behavior of the surface averaged Nusselt number has been estimated, and it was found that, the time to reach the steady state for the flow depends on the aspect ratio of the geometry and 3D nature of the natural convection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]