CFD Analysis of Thermal-Hydraulic Characteristics of Circular Tube with Dimples and Prisms

Abstract

This study employs CFD techniques to investigate the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of a circular tube enhanced with dimples and prisms. The incorporation of surface modifications, such as dimples and prisms, is a well-known method to enhance heat transfer and improve fluid flow characteristics in heat exchangers. To improve heat transfer efficiency for the reasons of compactness, energy savings, and emission reductions, among others, innovative heat exchanger designs are essential. The thermal-hydraulic performance of turbulent flow inside dimpled and prism tubes is examined numerically using Fluent in this work when the heat flux is kept constant at 80 kW/m². The related literature's specialized research works had not previously addressed the suggested novel design or the performance analysis that went along with it. To create critical performance indices for the dimpled configurations in comparison to the conventional circular prism tube, various geometrical and operational parameters (tube diameter ratio/flow modes) are changed. The model demonstrated strong validation against both circular and dimpled prism tube configurations. Additionally, the newly suggested HEX design tube with dimples has positive energy. Additionally, it can be inferred that the recently suggested HEX design tube with dimples has favourable operational characteristics for energy efficiency and environmental effects, including the possibility of reducing CO₂ emissions.