Experiments on Turbulent Heat Transfer in a Tube With Circumferentially Varying Thermal Boundary Conditions

Abstract

An experimental investigation, supported by analysis, was performed to determine the heat transfer characteristics for turbulent flow in a circular tube with circumferentially varying wall temperature and wall heat flux. Air was the working fluid. The desired boundary conditions were achieved by electric heating within the wall of a tube whose thickness varied circumferentially. In this way, ratios of maximum-to-minimum wall heat flux as large as two were attained. Local heat transfer coefficients, deduced from the experimental data, display a circumferential variation that is substantially smaller than the heat flux variation. In general, lower heat transfer coefficients correspond to circumferential locations of greater heating, while higher coefficients correspond to locations of lesser heating. The predictions of prior analyses appear to overestimate the circumferential variation of the heat transfer coefficient. A specially designed probe was employed to measure the radial and circumferential temperature distributions within the flowing airstream. On the basis of these measurements, as well as from the heat transfer results, it is concluded that, in the neighborhood of the wall, the tangential turbulent diffusivity is greater than the radial turbulent diffusivity. The axial thermal development was found to be more rapid on the lesser-heated side of the tube than on the greater-heated side. Experimentally determined circumferential-average heat transfer coefficients agreed well with the predictions of analysis.