Thermofluid Characteristics on Natural and Mixed Convection Heat Transfer From a Vertical Rotating Hollow Cylinder Immersed in Air: A Numerical Exercise

Abstract

Numerical investigations are performed on natural and mixed convection around stationary and rotating vertical heated hollow cylinder with negligible wall thickness suspended in the air. The fluid flow and heat transfer characterization around the hollow cylinder are obtained by varying the following parameters, namely, Rayleigh number (Ra), Reynolds number (ReD), and cylindrical aspect ratio (L/D). The heat transfer quantities are estimated by varying the Rayleigh number (Ra) from 104 to 108 and aspect ratio (L/D) ranging from 1 to 20. Steady mixed convection with active rotation of hollow vertical cylinder is further studied by varying the Reynolds number (ReD) from 0 to 2100. The velocity vectors and temperature contours are shown in order to understand the fluid flow and heat transfer around the vertical hollow cylinder for both rotating and nonrotating cases. The surface average Nusselt number trends are presented for various instances of Ra, ReD, and L/D and found out that the higher rate of heat loss from the cylinder wall occurs at high Ra, low L/D (short cylinder) and high ReD.