Unsteady convective heat transfer in cross flow past two tandem cylinders: an inverse heat conduction approach

Abstract

Series of experiments were conducted in order to develop empirical correlations to predict average Nusselt number on different segments of each of the two tandem cylinders and the overall average Nusselt number for unsteady state heat transfer in cross flow of air past tandem cylinders under constant heat flux supply condition. The unsteady-state Nusselt number distributions over the cylinders surface were determined using inverse heat conduction approach. During experimentation, the center-to-center spacing between the cylinders was varied from 1.2 to 4.0 times the cylinder diameter and that the Reynolds number from 1.1 × 104 to 6.2 × 104. The air was allowed to flow past the tandem cylinders for few fraction of a second only. A curve of constant C was plotted as a function of spacing ratio, which was used in the empirical correlation to determine overall average Nusselt number. The mean deviation of overall average Nusselt number predicted from the developed correlation was found within ±2.9% from the experimental values. From the results of average Nusselt number, the maximum heat transfer condition was obtained at spacing ratio of 2.2.