Decaying Swirl Flow Impact on Developing Laminar Pipe Flow

Abstract

The impact of decaying swirl flow on developing laminar flow is investigated numerically in this article. The effect of swirl flow is investigated under constant wall temperature. The impact of the decaying swirl is described using swirl number, friction coefficient and Nusselt number. The results show that decaying swirl enhances local heat transfer by 40% but that comes at 300% increase in local friction factor when compared to the developing flow with no swirl. Hence the insertion of swirl generator in tube heat exchanger reduces the size of the heat exchanger but it increases pumping system size and cost. Also, the results show that pressure does not always decrease in the flow direction since it could increase and then decreased depending on the swirl strength