Heat transfer enhancement for a cylinder by flexible fins in turbulent flow

Heat transfer from circular cylinders in turbulent cross flows plays a significant role in industrial operations. The objective of this paper is to numerically evaluate the heat transfer from a cylinder with a circular cross-section and four flexible fins in turbulent flows. The governing equations of the thermal fluid as well as the equations of the motion of deformable structure of fins were discretized using Finite Element Method (FEM). The designed model was employed to simulate the flow. The obtained results were then validated by comparing the heat transfer rate obtained from the circular cylinder with that from other experimental and numerical studies. In addition, the results from Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) were validated with respect to a benchmark example. The flexible fins were glued to the circular cylinder at two different angles of Θ = 0° and Θ = 45°. In both cases, the thermal enhancement and flow-induced vibrations of the fins were investigated at different degrees of non-dimensional flexural rigidity. According to the findings in this research, the attached fins at both angles with different flexural rigidity levels significantly affected the Nusselt number. In addition, highly flexible fins cause an increase in Nusselt number by 26%. © 2023 Sharif University of Technology. All rights reserved.