Determinación computacional del coeficiente de transferencia de calor en calentadores eléctricos de flujo continuo, mediante dinámica de fluidos computacional

Abstract

The estimation of the heat transfer coefficient using tools of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for four configurations of electric heaters of 5.08 cm in diameter has been done: a) single pipe, b) vertical baffles, c) helical baffle, d) helical baffle with torsion variation. The computational model is established using the κ-ϵ model to represent the phenomena of turbulence coupled with the heat balance equation. The heat transfer coefficients obtained by this method showed similarity between configurations a, c and d. The configuration b presented a significant increase due to the turbulence generated within the internal section in the enclosures, and showed a high pressure drop.