Experiment and Numerical Studies of Convection Heat Transfer around a Rotating Hand-Shaped Former

Abstract

Forced convective heat transfer around a rotating hand-shaped former was numerically studied to improve the rubber-glove-curing process. The former surface was separated into eight segments for simulation. The shear stress transport turbulence model and its wall functions were employed to model the rotating hand-shaped former in the heated airflow field. The rotation rate of the former varied from 0 to 5 in the freestream. The Reynolds number ranged from 1,583 to 15,837. The simulation results were compared and well agreed with the experimental data. These results indicated that the convective heat transfer of individual sections and the entire body varied according to the aforementioned variables. The most effective rotation rate was observed for the former segments that were far from the rotation axis. The lowest convective heat transfer occurred in the middle finger, which was located on the rotation axis and was shielded by other segments. Therefore, the average Nusselt number on the middle finger was significant and derived using a novel equation. This equation was compared with the computational fluid dynamics results and exhibited an average error and correlation coefficient of 7.32% and 0.9, respectively. It can help reduce the trial-and-error method to obtain curing conditions for rubber glove manufacturing.