Turbulent Flow in a Circular Tube With Arbitrary Internal Heat Sources and Wall Heat Transfer

Abstract

An analysis has been carried out to determine the heat-transfer characteristics for turbulent flow of a heat generating fluid in a circular tube with wall heat transfer. The internal heat generation is uniform over the tube cross section, but may vary longitudinally in an arbitrary manner. The wall heat transfer may also vary in an arbitrary way in the longitudinal direction. The analysis applies along the entire length of the tube, that is, in thermal entrance as well as fully developed regions. The fluid is assumed to have a fully developed turbulent velocity profile throughout the length of the pipe. Numerical results are presented for fluids with Prandtl numbers ranging from 0.7 to 100 for Reynolds numbers from 50,000 to 500,000. The extension of the results to include radial heat source variations is indicated.