Effect of Turbulent Prandtl Number on Convective Heat Transfer to Turbulent Flow of a Supercritical Fluid in a Vertical Round Tube

Abstract

A two-dimensional numerical model is developed to study the effect of the turbulent Prandtl number Prt on momentum and energy transport in a highly variable property flow of supercritical fluids in a vertical round tube. Both regimes of enhanced and deteriorated heat transfer have been investigated. The equations of the Prt leading to the best agreement with the experiments in either regime of heat transfer were specified. The results of this study show that the increase in the Prt causes the heat transfer coefficients to decrease. When the buoyancy force increases, a better agreement with the experimental data is reached if values lower than 0.9 are used for the Prt. A decrease in the Prt values results in an increase in turbulent activities. From the effect that the Prt has on heat transfer coefficients, it may be deduced that the buoyancy effects in the upward flow of a supercritical fluid lead to the decrease in the Prt value and hence to the increase in the heat transfer coefficients. Furthermore, the value of the Prt in the laminar viscous sublayer as expected does not have a significant effect on heat transfer rate. The effect of the turbulence model on the extent to which the Prt influences the rate of heat transfer is also examined. The results obtained are shown to be valid regardless of the turbulence model used.