Volume 2: Innovative Solutions for Energy Transitions: Part I

Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Characteristics in Non-Horizontal Swirling Tube Jiajie Feng, Ying Chen, Zi-Yian Lim, Kelvin Ho, Yousif Abdalla Abakr, Mohannad Eslam Shahin, Baiman Chen

Abstract

In the non-horizontal pipeline flow, the fluid will accelerate (or decelerate) and contact with the heat exchange surface due to the influence of gravity. In this paper, the effects of different vane angles and Reynolds numbers on the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics in the non-horizontal swirling tube are investigated by numerical simulation. It shows that the component force of gravity in the axial direction plays a key role in the heat transfer intensity and pressure drop. Compared with the horizontal flow, the cross-section temperature distribution of the non-horizontal flow changes significantly, and the pressure distribution changes moderately. These findings provide some theoretical guidance for the optimization of the structure of the swirler in a non-horizontal pipeline.

Keywords Non-horizontal, Swirling tube, Heat transfer, Pressure drop, Numerical simulation