Heat Transfer in Laminar Tube Flow of a Class of Non-Affine Viscoelastic Fluids

The fully developed thermal field in constant pressure gradient driven laminar flow of viscoelastic fluids in straight pipes of arbitrary contour ∂D is investigated. The nonlinear fluids considered are constitutively represented by a class of single mode, non-affine constitutive equations. The driving forces can be large and inertial effects are accounted for. Asymptotic series in terms of the Weissenberg number Wi are employed to represent the field variables. Heat transfer enhancement due to shear-thinning is identified together with the enhancement due to the inherent elasticity of the fluid. The latter is the result of secondary flows in the cross-section. Increasingly large enhancements are computed with increasing elasticity of the fluid as compared to its Newtonian counterpart. Large enhancements are possible even with dilute fluids. Isotherms for the temperature field are presented and discussed for several non-circular contours such as the ellipse and the equilateral triangle together with heat transfer behavior in terms of the Nusselt number Nu.