S-ST-1-13 CFD Study of Diabatic Single-Phase Laminar Liquid Flow in Horizontal Tubes
To gain insight into the physical characteristics of single-phase liquid tubeside laminar diabatic flows, we used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to analyze laminar data acquired with the HTRI Tubeside Single-Phase Unit (TSPU). This numerical approach generated local tubeside data that were validated by the associated experimental measurements. Twenty-seven experimental conditions for three test fluids were simulated with CFD for a 17-mm diameter and 4.5-m long tube. The simulations covered a wide range of laminar conditions, spanning Reynolds numbers from 6 to 2024. The results of this study demonstrate the feasibility and utility of using CFD to generate the local data required to develop an incrementally derived method for use in future versions of HTRI Xchanger Suite®. In addition, a method was developed that correlates the axial location of intube temperature pinches using overall tubeside quantities.