Forced Laminar Flow in Pipes Subjected to Asymmetric External Conditions: The HEATT© Platform for Online Simulations

Abstract

This chapter studies the fluid flow within pipes subjected to thermal asymmetrical boundary conditions. The phenomenon at hand takes place in many real-world industrial situations, such as solar thermal devices, aerial pipelines. A steady-state analysis of laminar forced-convection heat transfer for an incompressible Newtonian fluid is studied. The fluid is considered to flow through a straight round pipe provided with straight fins. For the case studied, axial heat conduction in the fluid has been considered and the effects of the forced convection have been considered to be dominant. A known uniform temperature field is applied at the upper external surface of the assembly. The 3D assembly has been created combining cylindrical and Cartesian coordinates. The governing differential equation system is solved numerically through suitable discretization in a set of different finite volume elements. The results are shown through the thermal profiles in respect of longitudinal and radial-azimuthal coordinates and the problem characteristic length. To facilitate the resolution of this phenomenon, an open computing platform called HEATT©, based on this model, has been developed, and it is also shown here. The platform is now being built and is expected to be freely available at the end of year 2022.