Thermodynamic calculation and geometry parameters are key issues in thermo-equipment design. The flow and conjugate heat transfer around the tandem tubes are numerically investigated, in which the examined parameters include thermal conductivity ratio (kr), volumetric heat capacity ratio (φr), and Biot number (Bi) which are varied from 200 to 800, 1000 to 3000, and 0.1 to 1.0, respectively. Further, the effect of the space ratio (L/D = 1.0–10.0) between the tandem tubes on the flow pattern and heat transfer is also studied to obtain a proper tube arrangement. In particular, a difference method for lattice Boltzmann algorithm is validated and then adopted on the curve fluid-solid interface to calculate the conjugate heat transfer. Results demonstrate that the thermal conductivity ratio significantly affects the heat transfer performance of the tube while the volumetric heat capacity ratio only affects the rate of heating process. The growth in thermal conductivity ratio leads to a more uniform temperature distribution and higher thermal performance, and this effect becomes weaker as the kr grows. Meanwhile, the increase of Bi strengthens the convective heat transfer inside the tube, further changing the dominant way of heat transfer. Finally, the flow varies considerably with the space ratio, classifying into four typical regimes. It is found that the Nu is sensitive to the flow regime and the case with L/D = 4.0 provides the best thermal performance of tandem tubes. These results can provide more realistic predictions and indications in thermo-equipment design.
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