A Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Turbulent Heat Transport Downstream From an Abrupt Pipe Expansion

Abstract

An experimental and numerical study is reported on heat transfer in the separated flow region created by an abrupt circular pipe expansion. Heat transfer coefficients were measured along the pipe wall downstream from an expansion for three different expansion ratios of d/D = 0.195, 0.391, and 0.586 for Reynolds numbers ranging from 104 to 1.5 × 105. The results are compared with the numerical solutions obtained with the k ∼ ε turbulence model. In this computation a new finite difference scheme is developed which shows several advantages over the ordinary hybrid scheme. The study also covers the derivation of a new wall function model. Generally good agreement between the measured and the computed results is shown.