Flow and Heat Transfer of Micro-Tube Bank

Heat transfer and flow behavior in a mini-tube bank was examined. The tube bank was simulated with wires of 1 mm diameter. The wires were arranged in the 5×5 in-line array and the 5×5 staggered array with the arranging pitch = 3. Experiments were performed in the range of the tube Reynolds number Re = 4 ∼ 3,500. Numerical analyses were also performed with the commercial CFD code of STAR-CD. The heat transfer coefficient of the tube of the first row was well expressed with the existing heat transfer correlations. In the case of the in-line array, unlike usual sized tube banks, the measured heat transfer coefficients of the tubes after the second row were lower than those of the first row and the difference between those increased as the Reynolds number was increased. At approximately Reynolds number ≃ 50, the difference turned to decrease; the heat transfer coefficients initiate to recover to the first row value. Then, the heat transfer coefficient in the rear row became larger at approximately Re ≃ 1,000 than that of the first row. In the case of the staggered array, the decrease in the heat transfer coefficient in the rear row was smaller than that in the case of the in-line array. The recovery of the heat transfer coefficient to the first row value started at a little bit lower Reynolds number and it exceeded the first row value at approximately Re ≃ 700. The flow visualization results and also the STAR-CD analytical results indicated that when the Reynolds number was low, the wake region of the preceding tube was stagnant. This flow stagnation caused the heat transfer deterioration in the front part of the rear tube, which resulted in the lower heat transfer coefficient of the rear tube than that of the first row. As the Reynolds number was increased, the flow state in the wake region changed from the stagnant condition to the more disturbed condition by periodical shedding of the Karman vortex. This change caused the recovery of the heat transfer in the front region of the rear tube, which resulted in the recovery of the heat transfer coefficient of the rear tube.