Transient conjugated heat transfer in thick walled pipes with axially periodic surface temperature in downstream region

Abstract

Thermal entrance region transient conjugate heat transfer is investigated involving fluid axial heat conduction for laminar pipe flows. Constant outer wall temperature boundary condition is assumed in the upstream region of a thick walled, two regional pipe. In the downstream region, the outer wall temperature is considered changing spatially in a periodical manner. The problem is solved numerically by a finite difference method. A parametric analysis is conducted in order to determine the effects of Peclet number, wall thickness ratio, wall-to-fluid thermal conductivity ratio, wall-to-fluid thermal diffusivity ratio and axial frequency on heat transfer characteristics. It is seen that, the results are highly dependent on the parameter values and the most effective ones are the Peclet number and the wall thickness ratio. It is observed that heat is transferred towards upstream due to the axial conduction in the wall and in the fluid and with increasing values for high axial frequency.