• Federico Censi
4. term, Energy Engineering, Master (Master Programme)
The evaluation of the natural convection heat transfer phenomenon on a vertical wall is performed, in order to assess if including waves on the vertical wall, is a convenient choice, when an enhancement of the heat transfer rate wants to be achieved. The CFD simulations in this thesis are performed using OpenFOAM, a popular open-source CFD software. To study the variation of the heat transfer rate along the wall, the Nusselt number variation is observed. The Nusselt number gives a precise estimation of the improvement of the heat transfer rate by heat convection, compared to heat conduction. Thus, observing how this value changed along the wall, it was possible to quantify the fluctuation of the heat transfer rate along the different vertical walls assessed. Two investigations are performed, one changing the amplitude of the waves along the wall, and one changing the number of the waves along the wall but keeping fixed the amplitude. It is observed that a local improvement of the heat transfer rate can be achieved only for some areas of the wall, and that this variation is more evident when the amplitude of the wave is changed. But looking at the overall heat transfer rate along the wall, the flat vertical wall has the highest heat transfer rate, compared to the other geometries assessed.
SpecialisationThermal Energy and Process Engineering
LanguageEnglish
Publication date20 Aug 2020
Number of pages49
ID: 341838572