A numerical study on the heat transfer in a swirl-tube heated/cooled on the half periphery of the tube wall

Convection heat transfer in a swirl tube was numerically analyzed so as to investigate a characteristic of heat removal when the cooling fluid flows within the swirl tube mounted in a solid structure represented as like a slab. Since the condition of heat inflow was treated as being transmitted only on the one-side surface of the structure, heat conduction through the structure was analyzed in linkage with the convection. Some results for the change in the coefficient of heat transmission along the tube axis are shown. The performance of heat removal was found to be strengthened due to the continuous renovation of thermal boundary layer close to the inside tube surface because the fluid flows in helical motion to shift the range alternate higher and lower temperature. (author)