ARTICLE:

• LES DATA-MODEL COMPARISONS FOR FLOW OVER A TUBE BUNDLE INCLUDING HEAT TRANSFER  download article

Stephen W. Webb
Geohydrology Department, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-1324, USA

J. T. Cook
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, USA

ABSTRACT

Flow over tube bundles is important in many applications including heat exchangers and steam generator tube bundles. Measurements of the fully-developed turbulent flow field in a tube bundle, including mean velocities and turbulent kinetic energy profiles, have been obtained by Simonin and Barcouda (1986, 1988) for a Reynolds number of 21,600 based on upstream velocity. A three-dimensional FLUENT model has been developed to simulate a unit cell in this tube bundle consisting of a center tube and parts of four surrounding side tubes. RANS, URANS, and LES turbulence models have been used to predict the flow and turbulence quantities, which are compared to the experimental data. For all three turbulence models, the mesh was the same at just over 1 million cells with a maximum y⁺ value of about 1.2.
Data-model comparisons for the mean velocity and turbulent kinetic energy profiles are shown for all three turbulence models. The resolved and unresolved turbulent kinetic energy contributions are presented for two planes across the tube bundle normal to the flow direction.
Time-dependent drag and lift forces on the center and surrounding side tubes have been calculated including the normalized power spectral density (PSD), which is compared to the suggested bounds of Blevins (2001). Unfortunately, there are no comparable experimental data for the fluid forces. Heat transfer on the center and surrounding side tubes has also been calculated for the three turbulence models yielding significantly different results. Again, no experimental data are available.

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