Abstract
A numerical analysis was performed to determine the heat transfer characteristics of axial laminar flow between a square array of cylinders with a uniform wall heat flux.
The velocity distribution is introduced according to the analytical solution obtained by Sparrow et al., and the energy equation is solved numerically to obtain the axial variation of temperature distribution by means of a forward-marching, implicit finite-difference method with iteration.
The numerical results for the local Nusselt number are presented graphically for the local Graetz numbers up to 106 and spacing-to-diameter ratios of 1.01 to 4.0. From the results, approximate expressions suitable for predicting the local Nusselt number are derived.
The numerical results are compared with those obtained previously for a triangular array of cylinders. It is realized that the local heat transfer coefficient for the triangular array is larger than that for the square array under the same volume fraction of cylinders.
