Numerical simulation of turbulent unsteady compressible pipe flow with heat transfer in the entrance region

Abstract

In this paper, the compressible gas flow through a pipe subjected to wall heat flux in unsteady condition in the entrance region is investigated numerically. The coupled conservation equations governing turbulent compressible viscous flow in the developing region of a pipe are solved numerically under different thermal boundary conditions. The numerical procedure is a finite-volume-based finite-element method applied to unstructured grids. The convection terms are discretized by the well-defined Roe method, whereas the diffusion terms are discretized by a Galerkin finite-element formulation. The temporal terms are evaluated based on an explicit fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme. The effect of different thermal conditions on the pressure loss of unsteady flow is investigated. The results show that increase in the inflow temperature or pipe-wall heat flux increases the pressure drop or decreases the mass flow rate in the pipe. © 2008 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.