CFD Investigation of Heat Transfer on Four Cylinders in in-Line Square Arrangement Equipped With Splitter Plates

Abstract

A numerical study was carried out for heat transfer in flow past four cylinders in in-line square arrangement with a pitch-to-diameter ratio <i>L/D</i> = 4.2. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computations were performed for Reynolds numbers of 9300 and 20,000 to investigate passive control using a rectangular splitter plate placed on the rear side of the cylinders. Three different configurations were considered: the first one contains only smooth cylinders, the second uses cylinders equipped with splitter plate in the upstream row, and the third configuration where all cylinders have a splitter plate. The steady-state Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations were solved using a finite volume method, where the k-ω SST turbulence model was used to produce a closed system of solvable equations. Results of the simulations in terms of temperature and Nusselt number distributions for all cylinders are presented and compared. The effect of new configurations on the heat transfer is well demonstrated, where a drop of about 7.92% in Nusselt number is reported using the splitter plate.