The effect of the low Reynolds number k-e turbulence models on simulation of the enhanced and deteriorated convective heat transfer to the supercritical fluid flows

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One of the most important challenges in mathematical modeling of convective heat transfer to the turbulent flow of a supercritical fluid is the turbulence modeling. The turbulence modeling, like other aspects of the supercritical fluid flows, seems to be high affected by the large variations of the fluid properties which needs to be further investigated. A two dimensional CFD code has been developed and used in this study to examine a number of the low Reynolds number k-e turbulence models. Both flow conditions corresponding to the heat transfer enhancement and deterioration have been studied. The results appear to be quite sensitive to the choice of the turbulence model, especially in the deteriorated regime of heat transfer. The turbulence model assisting the two-dimensional numerical model of the present study to best fit the experiments has been determined for both cases of the enhanced and deteriorated heat transfer. That is while the jump in the wall temperature occurring in the deteriorated regime of heat transfer is over- predicted by the present numerical code regardless of the turbulence model used.