Computational Fluid Dynamics Study on Forced Convective Heat Transfer Phenomena of Spheres in Power-law Liquids with Velocity Slip at the Interface

Abstract

ABSTRACTNumerical results on combined effects of the slip velocity, power-law fluid behavior index, Reynolds number, and Prandtl number on the forced convective heat transfer characteristics of single spheres in power-law liquids with velocity slip at the fluid-solid interface are reported on the basis of computational fluid dynamics approach. The governing conservation equations of the momentum and energy along with the appropriate boundary conditions are nondimensionalized using appropriate scaling parameters. These dimensionless equations are solved by a segregated approach using a finite difference method based simplified marker and cell algorithm implemented on a staggered grid arrangement in spherical coordinates. The detailed domain and grid independence studies along with appropriate validations are carried out to establish reliability and accuracy of the solver. Further extensive new results obtained in the range of conditions as: Reynolds number, 0.1–200; dimensionless slip number, 0.01–100; power-law index, 0.5–1.6; and Prandtl number, 1–100. The effects of these dimensionless parameters on the isotherm contours and local and average Nusselt numbers are thoroughly delineated. Finally, on the basis of present numerical results, an empirical correlation for the average Nusselt numbers of single spheres in power-law liquids with velocity slip at the interface is proposed.