• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.267-278
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• 1996

Steady, laminar, forced convection flow and heat transfer in the entrance region of an internally finned circular duct with a finite thermal conductivity has been analyzed numerically. The problem under investigation is a three-dimensional boundary layer problem, and is solved by employing a marching-type procedure which involves solution of a series of 2-dimensional elliptic problems in the cross-stream plane. Two types of inlet hydrodynamic conditions are considered : (a) uniform velocity flow and (b) fully developed flow. From the above inlet conditions, the effects of the fin height(h), fin number(N) and conductivity ratio($k_r$) on the flow and thermal characteristics are investigated. The numerical results show that the height and number of fins, and ratio of the solid to fluid thermal conductivity have pronounced effect on the solution. Considering pressure drop, optimized dimensionless fin height is 0.4.