Conductive sublayer of turbulent heat transfer for heating of water in a circular tube

Abstract

The steady-state and transient turbulent heat transfer coefficients in circular platinum (Pt) test tubes (inner diameters: 3 and 6 mm; heated lengths: 66.5 and 100 mm and 69.6 mm, respectively) were systematically measured using an experimental water loop for a wide range of flow velocities, inlet liquid temperatures, Prandtl numbers, inlet pressures, and exponentially increasing heat inputs (Q 0 exp(t/τ), τ: exponential period). The Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations and the k–e turbulence model for unsteady turbulent heat transfer in circular test sections were numerically solved for heating of water with heated sections of diameter 3 and 6 mm and length 67 and 100 mm and 70 mm, respectively, by using computational fluid dynamics code under the same conditions as those in the experiment and with temperature-dependent thermophysical fluid properties. The thickness of the conductive sublayer, δ CSL,st and δ CSL [=(Δr) out /2], and the nondimensional thickness of the conductive sublayer, (y , + ) TEM [=(f F /2)0.5 ρ l u δ CSL,st /μ l ] and (y + ) TEM [=(f F /2)0.5 ρ l u δ CSL /μ l ], for steady-state and transient turbulent heat transfer at various heated length-to-inner diameter ratios, inlet liquid temperatures, and exponential periods were measured on the basis of the numerical solutions. The correlations of the thickness of the conductive sublayer, δ CSL,st , and nondimensional thickness of the conductive sublayer, (y , + ) TEM , for steady-state turbulent heat transfer and those of the thickness of the conductive sublayer, δ CSL , and nondimensional thickness of the conductive sublayer, (y + ) TEM , for transient turbulent heat transfer in a circular tube were derived.