Turbulent convecting flow in a square duct with a 180 deg bend: An experimental and numerical study

The research in this British dissertation was motivated by the desire to provide a comprehensive set of convective heat transfer data against which flow simulation schemes could be tested. Turbulent convecting three-dimensional flow of fluids in curved passages is frequently encountered in thermofluids equipment and systems. Although such flow situations have been too complex to adequately simulate computationally in the past, recent developments have provided physical models coupled with numerical techniques which can be applied to provide such simulations. Nevertheless, it has not been established to what extent such simulations provide accurate predictions and a sufficiently detailed data base does not exist to allow a searching evaluation of computer predictions. It is the conclusion of this collaborative study that significant inadequacies remain in the turbulence and wall models with respect to their ability to predict fully-three dimensional curved turbulent flow. Predictions for the Nusselt number distribution are in rather better agreement with the experimental data than are the hydrodynamic and temperature field predictions.