Numerical Analysis of Laminar Forced Convection in the Entrance Region of Tubes With Longitudinal Internal Fins

Abstract

Steady, laminar, forced convection heat transfer in the thermal entrance region of internally finned tubes is investigated numerically for the case of fully developed hydrodynamics using the (H1) and (T) thermal boundary conditions. Results are presented for 16 geometries including the local Nusselt number and developing length corresponding to each boundary condition. These results indicate that internal finning influences the thermal development in a complicated way, which makes it inappropriate to extend the smooth tube results to internally finned tubes on a hydraulic diameter basis.