Abstract

A numerical investigation of heat transfer characteristics of pulsating turbulent flow in a circular tube is carried out. The flow is thermally and hydrodynamically fully developed and the tube wall is subjected to a uniform heat flux. The flow inlet to the pipe consists of fixed component and pulsating component that varies sinusoidally with time. The flow and temperature fields are computed numerically using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) Fluent code. Prediction of heat transfer characteristics is performed over a range of 10⁴ ≤Re ≤ 4×10⁴ and 0 ≤ ƒ ≤ 70 Hz are observed. Results showed little reduction in the mean time-averaged Nusselt number with respect to that of steady flow. However, in the fully developed established region, the local Nusselt number either increases or decreases over the steady flow-values depending on the frequency parameter. These noticed deviations are rather small in magnitude for the computed parameter ranges. The characteristics of heat transfer are qualitatively consistent with the available experimental and numerical predictions.

Key words: Nusselt number, heat transfer, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), pulsating flow in pipe.