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Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Developing Flow in Smooth Tubes in the Transitional Flow Regime

Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2015.

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Other Authors: Meyer, Josua P.
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Meyer, Josua P.
author_browse Meyer, Josua P.
author_facet Meyer, Josua P.
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv ©2015 University of Pretoria
description Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2015.
format Thesis
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:39:39.216Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/44245 Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Developing Flow in Smooth Tubes in the Transitional Flow Regime Meyer, Josua P. Everts, Marilize Transitional flow Developing flow Heat transfer Pressure drop Smooth tubes UCTD Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-07 SDG-07: Affordable and clean energy Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-09 SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-12 SDG-12: Responsible consumption and production Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2015. Heat exchangers have a wide range of applications and engineers need accurate correlations to optimise the design of these heat exchangers. During the design process, the best compromise between high heat transfer coefficients and relatively low pressure drops is usually in the transitional flow regime. Limited research has been done on tube flow in the transitional flow regime. These studies considered either fully developed flow, or average measurements of developing flow across a tube length. No research has been done with the focus on developing flow in smooth tubes in the transitional flow regime. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to experimentally investigate the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of developing flow in the transitional flow regime. An experimental set-up was designed, built and validated against literature. Heat transfer and pressure drop measurements were taken at Reynolds numbers between 500 and 10 000 at three different heat fluxes (6.5, 8.0 and 9.5 kW/m2). A total of 398 mass flow rate measurements, 19 158 temperature measurements and 370 pressure drop measurements were taken. Water was used as the test fluid and the Prandtl number ranged between 3 and 7. The test section was a smooth circular tube and had an inner diameter and length of 11.52 mm and 2.03 m, respectively. An uncertainty analysis showed that the uncertainties of the Nusselt numbers and Colburn j-factors varied between 4% and 5% while the friction factor uncertainties varied between 1% and 17%. Five different flow regimes (laminar, developing laminar, transitional, low-Reynolds-number-end and turbulent) were identified in the first part of the tube during the experiments and nomenclature was developed to more clearly identify the boundaries of the different flow regimes. The developing laminar regime was unique to developing flow and decreased along the tube length. Both the start and end of transition were delayed along the tube length and the width of the transition region decreased slightly. This is in contrast with the results obtained in literature where the effect of the non-dimensional distance from the inlet on fully developed flow in the transition region was investigated. Transition was also slightly delayed with increasing heat flux, but secondary flow effects had no significant influence on the width of the transition region. The relationship between heat transfer and pressure drop was investigated and correlations were developed to predict the Nusselt number as a function of friction factor, Reynolds number and Prandtl number in the laminar, transitional, low-Reynolds-number-end and turbulent flow regimes. Overall, it can be concluded that the heat transfer characteristics of developing and fully developed flow differ significantly and more work needs to be done to fully understand the fundamentals before the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics are fully understood. mi2025 Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering Unrestricted SDG-07: Affordable and clean energy SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure SDG-12: Responsible consumption and production 2015-04-07T11:04:22Z 2015-04-07T11:04:22Z 2015-04-23 2015 Dissertation Everts, M 2015, Heat transfer and pressure drop of developing flow in smooth tubes in the transitional flow regime, MEng dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/44245> A2015 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/44245 en ©2015 University of Pretoria application/vnd.ms-excel application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle Transitional flow
Developing flow
Heat transfer
Pressure drop
Smooth tubes
UCTD
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-07
SDG-07: Affordable and clean energy
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-09
SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-12
SDG-12: Responsible consumption and production
Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Developing Flow in Smooth Tubes in the Transitional Flow Regime
title Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Developing Flow in Smooth Tubes in the Transitional Flow Regime
title_full Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Developing Flow in Smooth Tubes in the Transitional Flow Regime
title_fullStr Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Developing Flow in Smooth Tubes in the Transitional Flow Regime
title_full_unstemmed Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Developing Flow in Smooth Tubes in the Transitional Flow Regime
title_short Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Developing Flow in Smooth Tubes in the Transitional Flow Regime
title_sort heat transfer and pressure drop of developing flow in smooth tubes in the transitional flow regime
topic Transitional flow
Developing flow
Heat transfer
Pressure drop
Smooth tubes
UCTD
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-07
SDG-07: Affordable and clean energy
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-09
SDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Engineering, built environment and information technology theses SDG-12
SDG-12: Responsible consumption and production
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/44245