Numerical Investigation of Convection Heat Transfer in Pipes with Sintered Porous Metal Rings

Fully developed turbulence single phase convection heat transfer of water in pipes filled with sintered porous metal inner rings or solid inner rings was investigated numerically respectively. Numerical calculations were conducted with the Fluent 6.3 code, using the SST k-omega turbulence model. Comparing to solid-ring turbulator pipes, porous-ring turbulator pipes have better comprehensive heat transfer effect. The maximum PEC for porous-ring turbulator pipes is 4.4 and the PEC of solid-ring turbulator pipes is less than 1. It was also analyzed effect of geometric structures on porous-ring turbulator pipe performance. f/f(0) for porous-ring turbulator pipes increases with the increasing of Re while Nu/Nu(0) decreases with the increasing of Re, and PEC decreases with the increasing of Re. With the same Re, if the width of the porous ring is equal to the width of groove, f/f(0), Nu/Nu(0) increases and PEC decreases with the increasing height of porous ring. When the height of porous ring is constant, the f/f(0), Nu/Nu(0) and PEC decreases with the increasing height of porous ring under the same Re.