Effect of Horizontal Spacing and Tilt Angle on Thermo-Buoyant Natural Convection from Two Horizontally Aligned Square Cylinders

TL;DR

This study numerically investigates how horizontal spacing and tilt angle affect natural convection heat transfer between two aligned square cylinders, revealing optimal configurations and developing a correlation for engineering use.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the combined effects of spacing and tilt angle on heat transfer, including a developed correlation for practical engineering calculations.

Findings

Heat transfer increases with decreasing spacing up to a limit due to chimney effect.

Tilt angle of 45° yields higher heat transfer than 0°.

Average Nusselt number strongly depends on Grashof and Prandtl numbers.

Abstract

Laminar natural convection heat transfer from two horizontally aligned square cylinders has been investigated numerically using a finite-volume method (FVM) approach. Computations were performed to delineate the momentum and heat transfer characteristics under the following ranges of parameters: horizontal spacing between the cylinders (0 <= S/W <= 10), tilt angle of the square cylinder (0^0 <= {\delta} <= 60^0), and Grashof number (10 <= Gr <= 10^5) for some specific Newtonian fluids having Prandtl number (0.71 <= Pr <= 7). The comprehensive results are represented in terms of temperature contours and streamlines, velocity and temperature profiles, the mass flow rate in the passage between the cylinders, local and average Nu, and the drag coefficient. Owing to the development of a chimney effect, the heat transfer increases with decrease in the horizontal spacing up to a certain limit, whereas it significantly degrades with a further decrease in the spacing. The square cylinder having {\delta} = 45^0 shows a higher heat transfer, whereas it is least for {\delta} = 0^0. At higher Gr and Pr, the average Nu is found to be in excess of 22% at {\delta} = 45^0 compared to at {\delta} = 0^0. Overall, the average Nu has a strong dependence on both Gr and Pr, whereas it is a weak function of S/W and {\delta}. Furthermore, the entropy generation is reproduced non-dimensionally in terms of the Bejan number. Finally, a correlation for the average Nu has been developed, which can be useful for the engineering calculations.