Energy Efficiency Analysis of Natural Convection Heat Transfer in Concentric Annulus with Interior and Exterior Grooves

Abstract

This study is a numerical investigation of the convective heat transfer in motionless concentric annulus composed of two horizontal cylinders, one of which is grooved. The inner cylinder is kept at hot temperature Th and the outer one is kept at cold temperature Tc. The aim of this paper is to analyze the effect of the groove on thermal and dynamic behavior in the annulus when the groove is located on the hot cylinder (inner groove), and when it is located on the cold cylinder (exterior groove). To observe the effect the inner and outer groove on the flow structure and on the heat transfer rate, the groove is positioned at ϕ0=-90̊, -45̊, 0 ̊, 45 ̊, and 90̊. Moreover, the groove size (f) and the radius ratio (e) of the annulus have been changed to investigate their effects on heat transfer rate as well as on the energy efficiency of the process. The results show that the heat transfer rate rises up with the increase of Rayleigh number. It is seen that; in the case of the inner groove; the heat transfer rate reaches a maximum at ϕ0=40̊, whatever the groove size. Furthermore, the energy efficiency of the process is maximum when the inner groove is positioned at ϕ0=90̊, and it increases well with the increase of f. On the other hand, in the case of the exterior groove, the heat transfer rate is practically close to that of non-grooved annulus for f<0.7. A decrease of 34% of the energy efficiency is noticed with the increase of the size of the groove to f=0.7. Our results would be very useful for manufacturers who are looking for increasing the energy efficiency of their process, or also who need to boost or decrease the heat transfer rate depending on the objective of their process.