Flow and heat transfer characteristics in pulsating pipe flows (Effects of pulsation on internal heat transfer in a circular pipe flow)

Effects of pulsation on flow and heat transfer characteristics are experimentally examined in the pulsating pipe flows having sinusoidal velocity fluctuations around a nonzero mean. By systematically varying three pulsation parameters (the amplitude, frequency, and mean velocity), time-averaged and fluctuating temperature profiles are measured under the heating condition of constant wall temperature using saturated vapor. The mean Nusselt number, Nup, is calculated, and compared with that in ordinary turbulent pipe flows without pulsation. The results show that Nup, decreases initially as the pulsation amplitude increases, then recovers gradually, and finally becomes much greater than the original value. In pulsating pipe flows with a nonzero mean velocity, therefore, pulsation cannot always promote heat transfer, but sometimes suppresses it, depending mainly on the pulsation amplitude and mean velocity. It is also found that these heat transfer characteristics of a pulsating pipe flow are controlled by the transition of flow patterns with pulsation amplitude from a fully turbulent flow to a conditionally turbulent flow via a transitional flow. © 1997 Scripta Technica, Inc. Heat Trans Jpn Res, 25(5): 323–341, 1996