Numerical simulation of thermally developing turbulent flow through a cylindrical tube

Abstract

A numerical study was conducted using the finite difference technique to examine the mechanism of energy transfer as well as turbulence in the case of fully developed turbulent flow in a circular tube with constant wall temperature and heat flow conditions. The methodology to solve this thermal problem is based on the energy equation, a fluid of constant properties in an axisymmetric and two-dimensional stationary flow. The global equations and the initial and boundary conditions acting on the problem are configured in dimensionless form in order to predict the characteristics of the turbulent fluid flow inside the tube. Using Thomas’ algorithm, a program in FORTRAN was developed to numerically solve the discretized form of the system of equations describing the problem. Finally, using this elaborate program, we were able to simulate the flow characteristics, for changing parameters such as Reynolds, Prandtl, and Peclet numbers along the pipe to obtain the important thermal model. These are discussed in detail in this work. Comparison of the results to published data shows that results are a good match to the published quantities.