Mesh independence in twisted tubes for heat exchange: case study
CFD packages were used to predict dynamic and thermal development in twisted coiled tubes heat exchangers, but with simplified geometries that are far from reality. In addition, several commercial tools for mesh generation are available, however, the effect that quality and elements number have on solution and computation cost increase, requires precision balance with available computational resources. This research sought to control volume discretization of improved realistic exchangers, for later use in numerical development of correlations for sizing and selection. Following an assessment of state of the art, and geometric development of control volumes with CAD tools: SolidEdge® and DesignModeler®, the ANSYS Workbench® tool: Meshing® was used for evaluating methods, and global and local settings of mesh, for its generation and metrics verification. Grid independence studies were developed for two exchanger geometries, assessing quality and elements number impact in Nusselt number convergence, and validated with experimental results available in literature. As a main result the best mesh for numerical study of each geometry were selected, and validated proposed methodology. The simulation results are influenced by mesh quality, and other parameters; all must be evaluated before using these results in decision making, and it is necessary to use experimental results for such validation.
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Digital revista |
| Language: | spa |
| Published: |
Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Medellín - Facultad de Ciencias
2016
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| Online Access: | https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/rfc/article/view/54231 |
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| Summary: | CFD packages were used to predict dynamic and thermal development in twisted coiled tubes heat exchangers, but with simplified geometries that are far from reality. In addition, several commercial tools for mesh generation are available, however, the effect that quality and elements number have on solution and computation cost increase, requires precision balance with available computational resources. This research sought to control volume discretization of improved realistic exchangers, for later use in numerical development of correlations for sizing and selection. Following an assessment of state of the art, and geometric development of control volumes with CAD tools: SolidEdge® and DesignModeler®, the ANSYS Workbench® tool: Meshing® was used for evaluating methods, and global and local settings of mesh, for its generation and metrics verification. Grid independence studies were developed for two exchanger geometries, assessing quality and elements number impact in Nusselt number convergence, and validated with experimental results available in literature. As a main result the best mesh for numerical study of each geometry were selected, and validated proposed methodology. The simulation results are influenced by mesh quality, and other parameters; all must be evaluated before using these results in decision making, and it is necessary to use experimental results for such validation. |
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