Flow Dynamics Over Two Cylinders in Tandem Subjected to Different Heating Cases

Abstract

Abstract Heated and unheated flows with forced convection over two fixed circular cylinders in tandem are studied numerically for 80 ≤ Re ≤ 250 and 1 ≤ T* ≤ 2.3. Three different spacing ratios (L/D) = [2, 4, 8] are considered under three heating conditions. The scenarios considered are (1) heated upstream and unheated downstream cylinders, (2) unheated upstream and heated downstream cylinders and (3) heated upstream and downstream cylinders. These scenarios represent the limiting case for a cross-flow heat exchanger, where the downstream tubes are at increasingly lower or higher temperature for cooling or heating, respectively. The global aerodynamic forces on the cylinder as vortices shed was investigated. The flow is visualized by plotting the streamlines, temperature fields, and velocity magnitude contours for the different spacing ratios and compared to the flow regimes in literature namely, Extended-body, Reattachment, and Co-shedding regimes. The drag and surface heat transfer coefficients are analyzed for different scenarios. The effect of heating on the fluid properties and the resulted wakes in the flow are found to be strongly influenced by Re and L/D. The scenario of heated upstream and unheated downstream cylinders was found to increase the mean drag coefficient Cd on the upstream cylinder for L/D = 2 & 4 but is not as evident for the downstream cylinder. The heat transfer coefficient h on the upstream cylinder remained approximately the same regardless of a heated or unheated downstream cylinder. In contrast, h of the downstream cylinder decreases for the scenario of heated upstream and downstream cylinder.