A CFD simulation study of heat transfer augmentation through enhanced tube

Abstract

This paper presents the outcomes of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation study of heat transfer augmentation through enhanced copper tube. The study was carried out by constructing the model of a 0.5 m long 40 inner grooved copper tube through SOLIDWORKS followed by importing the model into GAMBIT environment for healing, meshing, and boundary conditions and zone setting. The model was subsequently run in FLUENT for four different cases. The simulation results were compared with experimental results found in literature. A moderate agreement was observed between the results obtained through this simulation work compared to published experimental results. Heat transfer augmentation through enhanced tube is also compared with smooth tube and it is found that enhanced tube could enhance heat transfer in the rage of 649.67 - 917.22%. Relationship between heat transfer coefficient and mass flow rate was also observed and it is found that they are directly proportional to each other