HEAT-TRANSFER FROM A FULLY-DEVELOPED PULSATING FLOW IN A CURVED PIPE

Numerical studies are made of the flow and heat transfer characteristics of a fully-developed pulsating flow in a strongly curved pipe. Emphasis is placed on delineating the effects of the Reynolds number, and pulsation amplitude and frequency. By using a toroidal coordinate system, the complete, time-dependent incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are formulated. The peripherally-uniform temperature condition is imposed on the pipe wall. Particular attention is given to heat transfer properties over substantially extended parameter ranges of the Reynolds number Re and the Womersley number Wo. Use is made of a well-established numerical solution procedure, with minor amendments. The computed results on the flow field are in close agreement with the existing data in the overlapping parameter ranges. The spatial distributions of axial and secondary flows are depicted. The time variations of flow structure are displayed. The numerical results on the spatial and temporal variations of the thermal field are presented. The circumferential profiles of local Nusselt number are plotted at selected instants. When Wo is small, the time- and space-averaged Nusselt numbers, Nu(m)BAR, is lower for a pulsating flow than for a corresponding non-pulsating flow. At moderate and high Wo, however, the difference in Nu(m)BAR between a pulsating and a non-pulsating flow is insignificant.