2015 AP6: Numerical Solution on Transient Heat Transfer for Forced Convection Flow

of Helium Gas over a Twisted Plate with Different Helical Pitch

Numerical Solution on Transient Heat Transfer for Forced Convection Flow

of Helium Gas over a Twisted Plate with Different Helical Pitch

Li Wang*1; Qiusheng Liu*2; Katsuya Fukuda*3

*1: Kobe University, Graduate School of Maritime Sciences, 5-1-1, Fukae-minami, Higashinada-ku, Kobe, JAPAN 658-0022,
wangli@stu.kobe-u.ac.jp, Phone +81-90-3871-9455
*2: Kobe University, Department of Marine Engineering, 5-1-1, Fukae-minami, Higashinada-ku, Kobe, JAPAN 658-0022,
qsliu@maritime.kobe-u.ac.jp, Phone +81-78-431-6299
*3: Kobe University, Department of Marine Engineering, 5-1-1, Fukae-minami, Higashinada-ku, Kobe, JAPAN 658-0022,
fukuda@maritime.kobe-u.ac.jp, Phone +81-78-431-6303

In marine power plant, effective heat exchange is important for process efficiency. It significantly influences the economics,
and with improved thermal performance the impact on environment can be reduced. In this study, forced convection transient
heat transfer for helium gas flowing over a twisted plate was studied by applying Computer Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method.
The helical pitch of the twisted plate was 20 mm, 25 mm and 30 mm, respectively. The heat generation rate of the twisted
plate was increased with an exponential function. Numerical solution was carried out at various periods ranged from 176 ms to
8.4 s. The flow velocity ranged from 4 m/s to 10 m/s. Simulation results were obtained and compared to experimental results.
Effect of helical pitch on heat transfer enhancement was clarified.

1. Introduction

Heat transfer devices are widely used in industrial processes such as power production, the manufacturing industry,
refrigeration, ship power system, air conditioning and etc. Transient forced convection heat transfer process accompanying
exponentially increasing heat input to a heater is important in many industrial fields. The behavior of heat transfer devices
during transient processes with fast temperature changes may cause some undesirable results such as reduced thermal
performance and thermal stress with eventual mechanical failure.

Though many analytical solutions and experiments were reported on the steady state heat transfer, the transient process has not
been adequately studied. There are only a few experimental and analytical works on this issue as far as authors know. Soliman
and Johnson[1] analytically obtained a temperature change in plate by taking into account the turbulent boundary around the
plate. However, the solution of heat transfer coefficient for water is 50% higher than their experimental data. Kataoka et al[2]
conducted the transient experiment of water which flows in parallel to a cylinder, and obtained an empirical correlation for the
ratios between the transient heat transfer coefficient and steady state one in term of one non-dimensional parameter composed
of period, velocity, and heater length. Liu and Fukuda[3-5] obtained the experimental data and correlations for parallel flow of
helium gas over a horizontal cylinder and a plate. They investigated diameter and geometric effect of heaters on transient heat
transfer. Meanwhile, they[6] also did some simple numerical studies on transient heat transfer.

For twisted plate, Manglik and Bergles[7,8] investigated heat transfer and pressure drop correlations for twisted-tape-inserts in
isothermal tubes. A wide range of Reynolds number from laminar to transition and transient flow had been studied. They[9]
also presented experimental flow visualization and computational modeling of single-phase laminar flows to clarify the
mechanism of enhancement of heat transfer. However, the researches mentioned above have not been concerned on the heat
transfer enhancement of the twisted plate, while aiming at the heat transfer through the tube. Hata[10] studied the
twisted-tape-induced swirl flow heat transfer with exponentially increasing heat inputs. A predictable correlation for turbulent
heat transfer of the twisted tape was derived based on experimental data.
In this paper, forced convection transient heat transfer for helium gas flowing over a series of twisted plate with different

Translated from Journal of the JIME Vol.50, No.06 ○

C 2015(Original English)
helical pitch has been numerically analyzed by using ANSYS FLUENT 14.0 code. The heat generation rate of the twisted
platinum plate was increased with an exponential function. Surface temperature difference, heat flux and heat transfer
coefficient obtained by numerical solution were compared with previous authors’ experimental data. Furthermore, numerical
simulations for different helical pitch were carried out by comparing to a flat plate to clarify the effect of swirl flow on the
enhancement of heat transfer.

2. Numerical analysis
2.1 Physical model

Figure 1 shows the physical model in

this numerical solution. The heater was
mounted horizontally along the center axis
of the circular channel, which is 20 mm in
diameter. The twisted plate is 4 mm in
width, 0.1 mm in thicknesses and 60
mm in length. The platinum plate was
twisted at the center. Both ends of it were
connected to two copper plates with
the same thickness of twisted plate.

A 3-D model was built with necessary simplification. Forced convection transient heat transfer for helium gas flowing over
twisted plate with exponentially increasing heat input ( Q = Q 0 exp (t/τ ) ) were numerically calculated, where, Q is heat
generation rate, W/m3, Q 0 is initial heat generation rate, W/m3, t is time, s, and τ is a period of heat generation, s. A smaller or
shorter τ means a higher increasing rate of heat generation.

Three kinds of helical pitch of 20 mm, 25 mm and 30 mm were conducted for the model, as shown in Fig.2.

2.2 Solution model

ANSYS FLUENT 14 was used in this numerical solution. For the fluid, mass, momentum and energy conservation equations
take the following forms, respectively (ANSYS Inc., 2012[11]).

∂ ( ρu ) ∂ ( ρv) ∂ ( ρw)
+ + =0 (1)
∂X ∂Y ∂Z
∂ → →→
ρ (V ) + ∇ ⋅ ( ρ V V ) = ρg − ∇p + ∇ ⋅ (τ ) (2)
∂τ
∂E → →
ρ + ∇[V ( ρE + p )] = ∇ ⋅ (κ eff ∇T + (t eff ⋅ V )) (3)
∂t
p V2
Where, E = h f − + (4)
ρ 2
 c p µt
k eff = k + (5)
Prt
∂u j ∂u i 2 ∂u k
τ eff = µ (( + )− δ ij ) (6)
∂x i ∂x j 3 ∂x k

For the twisted plate, the energy conservation equation takes the following form.
∂h s .
ρ + ∇ ⋅ (V ρh s ) = ∇ ⋅ (k∇T ) + Q (7)
∂t

Where, Q is internal heat source, Q = Q 0 exp (t/τ ) .

Boundary conditions:
at heater surface,
u=v=w=0 (8)

Ts solid = Ts (9)
fluid

qs = qs (10)
solid fluid

at the wall of channel,

u=v=w=0 (11)

Tw = T∞ (12)

In this study, the Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) was used to model the turbulent flow regime. Because the RSM accounts for
the effects of streamline curvature, swirl, rotation and rapid changes in strain rate in a more rigorous manner than one-equation
and two-equation models. Simple algorithm is used for the velocity and pressure coupling. The Enhanced Wall Treatment
model was chosen for the near-wall modeling method because it combines the use of a blended law-of-the-wall and a
two-layer zonal model and generally requires a fine near-wall mesh that is capable of solving the viscous sub-layer. The
dimensionless distance y+ ( ≡ ρuτ y / µ ) was considered, where ρ is density; kg/m3; uτ is friction velocity, m/s; y is
wall-normal distance, m; μ is molecular viscosity, Pa∙s. To ensure the mesh quality, the first near-wall node is placed at y+ ≈ 1
and over 20 cells were placed in boundary layer.

2.3 Calculating conditions

The calculating conditions of numerical simulation are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Calculating conditions

Pressure 500 kPa
Gas temperature (inlet) 303 K
Velocity 4 ~ 10 m/s
Period 176, 1691, 8355 ms
Helical pitch 20, 25, 30 mm

2.4 Mesh validation study

The mesh independency was tested for three different mesh size. For the case with of flow velocity of 10 m/s, period of 1691
ms and helical pitch size of 20 mm, mesh dependency was examined by solving the flow field with total mesh cells of about

Journal of the JIME Vol.50， No.06 －3－ 日本マリンエンジニアリング学会誌 第 50 巻 第 06 号 (0000-00)

100,000, 400,000 and 1,160,000, respectively. For each grid size, the y+ is satisfied firstly. The temperature difference ΔT was
compared, shown in Fig.3.

500

Cell number=100,000
400
Cell number=400,000
Cell number=1,160,000

ΔT (K)
300

200

100

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
t/τ
Fig.3 Temperature difference for three kinds of cell density.

Temperature difference is the difference between the average surface temperature of the twisted plate (Tsa) and the inlet gas
temperature (T∞), expressed as:

∆T = Tsa − T∞ (13)

The average surface temperature (Tsa) was estimated by using the method of area-weighted average. The area-weighted
average of the temperature is computed by dividing the summation of the product of the selected field temperature (Ti) and
facet area (Ai) by the total area of the surface (A):

1 1 n
Tsa = T = ∫ TdA = ∑ Ti Ai (14)
A A i =1

By comparing the numerical simulation results of temperature difference, 4.9% difference exists between the coarse mesh and
the medium mesh and less than 0.6% difference exists between the medium mesh and the finer mesh. It indicates that the
medium mesh resulted in mesh-independency solution. The solution mesh used in this study is the medium mesh which is
built of hexahedrons by ANSYS ICEM 14.0.

3. Comparison of numerical results with experimental data

3.1 Experimental conditions

Experimental apparatus was reported in previous works[3-5,12]. The transient heat transfer experimental data for helium gas
were measured for the periods of 176, 1691 and 8355 ms. Helium gas inlet temperature is 303 K, and pressure is 500 kPa. The
flow velocity ranged from 4 to 10 m/s, and the corresponding Reynolds number ranged from 3×103 to 2×104. Re = UL /ν .
where U is gas flow velocity, m/s; L is effective length of the heater, m; νis kinematic viscosity, m2/s. The twisted plate used
in experiment was made of platinum with a width of 4 mm and a thickness of 0.1 mm. Effective length of the twisted plate is
61.2 mm with three helical pitches, of about 20 mm in length. The heat generation rate was raised with exponential function as
mentioned in physical model.

3.2 Results at various heat generation periods

Figure 4 shows time-dependence of heat generation rate, heat flux, and surface temperature difference at various heat
generation rate increasing periods of 176, 1691 and 8355 ms. Flow velocity is 10 m/s. The gas temperature is 303 K at 500
kPa. The helical pitch of twisted plate is 20 mm and the model contains three pitches in total.
The symbols show previous experimental data[12], and the lines show values of the numerical solution. The heat generation rate,
heat flux and temperature difference increase rapidly as the period is shorter and it is understood that the heat flux and surface
temperature difference increase exponentially as the heat generation rate increases with exponential function. The simulation
results of heat flux and temperature difference agree well with the experimental data within 3.0% and 1.2%, respectively.

6
Helical piτch 20 mm
5 Flow velociτy 10 m/s
τ = 176 ms(Experimenτal)
τ = 176 ms(Numerical)
Q (10 W/m )
3
4 τ = 1691 ms(Experimenτal)
τ = 1691 ms(Numerical)
τ = 8355 ms(Experimenτal)
9

3
τ = 8355 ms(Numerical)
.
2

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
τ (s)

(a) Q

2
Helical piτch 20 mm
Flow velociτy 10 m/s
τ = 176 ms(Experimenτal)
1.5 τ = 176 ms(Numerical)
τ = 1691 ms(Numerical)
q (10 W/m )
2

τ = 1691 ms(Numerical)
τ = 8355ms(Experimenτal)
1 τ = 8355 ms(Numerical)
5

0.5

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
τ (s)
(b) q
400
Helical piτch 20 mm
350 Flow velociτy 10 m/s

300 τ = 176 ms(Experimenτal)

τ = 176 ms(Numerical)
τ = 1691 ms(Experimenτal)
250
τ = 1691ms (Numerical)
ΔT (K)

τ = 8355 ms(Experimenτal)
200
τ = 8355 ms(Numerical)
150

100

50

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
τ (s)

(c) ΔT
Fig.4 Comparison of Q , q and ΔT with experimental data at various periods.

Journal of the JIME Vol.50， No.06 －5－ 日本マリンエンジニアリング学会誌 第 50 巻 第 06 号 (0000-00)

3.3 Results at various flow velocities

The time-dependence of heat generation rate, Q , heat flux, q, and surface temperature difference, ΔT at a typical flow
velocity of 4 m/s is shown in Fig.5. The helical pitch of twisted plate is 20 mm and the model contains three pitches in total. It
can be found that, the numerical simulation results of heat flux agree well with experimental data, while the simulation result
of temperature difference is a little higher than the experimental result at the last part of t/τ.

Numerical simulations for higher flow velocities of 6, 8 and 10 m/s have also been done and the results match experimental
data well. For the flow velocity ranged from 4 to 10 m/s, the differences of heat flux and temperature difference are within
5.0%.

400 6 5
350 ΔT (Experimental data)
5 ΔT
. (Numerical result) 4
300
3)

Q. (Experimental data)

2)
Q (10 W/m

q (10 W/m
250 Q (Numerical result)
ΔT (K)

q (Experimental data) 3
q (Numerical reslult)
9

200 3

5
150 . 2
2
100
1
1
50
0 0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
t/t

Fig.5 Time-dependence of Q , q, ΔT at 4 m/s.

800
700
600
h (W/(m K))

500
2

400
300
200 U= 10 m/s (Experimental) U= 8 m/s (Experimental)
U= 10 m/s (Numerical) U= 8 m/s (Numerical)
100 U= 6 m/s (Experimental) U= 4 m/s (Experimental)
U= 6 m/s (Numerical) U= 4 m/s (Numerical)
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
t/t
Fig.6 Effects of flow velocity on heat transfer.

Figure 6 shows instantaneous heat transfer coefficients versus times at various flow velocities. The helical pitch of twisted
plate is 20 mm and the model contains three pitches in total. As seen from the figure, heat transfer coefficient increases with
the increase of flow velocity. For higher flow velocities at 8 m/s and 10 m/s the numerical results agree well with the
experimental data, while for lower flow velocities, the simulation values are somewhat lower than experimental data, and the
differences are within 7.4%.So, it can be derived that the Reynolds Stress Model used in this study showed wide applicability
for Reynolds number ranging from 3×103 to 2×104.

4. Effect of helical pitch

To study the effect of helical pitch on heat transfer enhancement. Various helical pitches of 20, 25 and 30 mm were modeled at
the period of 1691 ms and the flow velocity of 10 m/s. A flat plate with the same width of the twisted plates is also modeled to
be compared with. The comparison of heat transfer coefficient of twisted plate with flat plate is shown in Fig.7. The heat
transfer coefficient increases with the decrease of pitch length of twisted plate. An increasing ratio of about 6% can be
generated by decreasing pitch size from 30 mm to 25 mm, or from 25 mm to 20 mm.

In this numerical simulation, the heat transfer coefficients for the twisted plate are 35-55% higher than those of flat plate.
Therefore, it was considered that the short pitch twisted heater is useful for the enhancement of heat transfer.

800

700 Period 1691 ms

Flow velocity 10 m/s
600
h (W/(m K))

500
2

400

300
Pitch20mm
200 Pitch25mm
Pitch30mm
100 flat plate

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
t (s)
Fig.7 Heat transfer coefficient at various pitches.

A cross section of velocity distribution can be obtained from the simulation result at the middle of the heater along the length
direction. The velocity distribution of the fluid area around the twisted plate with pitch size of 20 mm is compared to the flat
plate, shown in Fig.8. The velocity is 10 m/s. The period of heat generation is 1.4 s at the time of 4 s as 4 seconds passed after
start of heating.

(a) Twisted plate (b) Flat plate

Fig.8 Velocity distribution of the cross section view in the center of twisted plate (a) and flat plate (b).

It can be found that a swirl distribution occurs for velocity boundary thickness around the twisted plate. While for the flat plate,
the velocity boundary layer thickness is almost uniform.

Journal of the JIME Vol.50， No.06 －7－ 日本マリンエンジニアリング学会誌 第 50 巻 第 06 号 (0000-00)

It is considered that the helical vortices generated by the surface curvature of twisted plate will improve turbulence intensity
and promote greater “thermal mixing”. It will result in sharper temperature gradients in the boundary layer and higher heat
transfer coefficient. Besides, centrifugal force generated by the twisted structure will lead to a pressure distribution on the
heater surface in the radial section. Thus, secondary flow perpendicular to the main flow will generate. This secondary flow in
the radial direction will contribute to the flow velocity and thus resulted in heat transfer coefficient enhancement.

With smaller pitch size, the twisting degree increases and contributes to the generating of swirl flow which will result in higher
heat transfer coefficient. Therefore it is considered that the enhancement of heat transfer was attributed to swirl flow induced
by twisted plate.

5. Conclusions

Forced convection transient heat transfer for single horizontal twisted plate with various pitches was theoretically studied.
Following results were obtained.

(1) The Reynolds Stress Model was validated by comparing simulation results with author’s previous experimental data.
(2) Heat flux and temperature difference obtained by numerical simulation were compared to experimental data, differences
within 3.0%.
(3) The effect of flow velocity on heat transfer was numerically studied, and compared to experimental data, they agree within
7.4%.
(4) Effect of helical pitch on heat transfer coefficient was clarified. The short pitch twisted heater is useful for heat transfer
enhancement.
(5) Velocity boundary layer distributions were obtained. The mechanism of heat transfer enhancement by twisted-plate-was
clarified.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the promotion of Science (JSPS) (Grant-in Aid for Scientific Research (C),
KAKENHI, No. 15K05829).

References

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Journal of the JIME Vol.50， No.06 －9－ 日本マリンエンジニアリング学会誌 第 50 巻 第 06 号 (0000-00)