A numerical study of convective heat transfer from a rotating cylinder with cross-flow oscillation

This article presents a numerical investigation of convective heat transfer from a rotating cylinder with cross-flow oscillation. A finite element analysis using Characteristic Based Split method (CBS) is developed to solve governing equations involving continuity, Navier–Stokes, and energy equations. Dynamic unstructured triangular grid is used employing improved lineal and torsional spring analogy which is coupled with the solver by the Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) formulation. After verifying the numerical code accuracy, simulations are conducted to study convective heat transfer past a rotating cylinder with cross-flow oscillation at Reynolds numbers of 50, 100, and 200. Different rotational speeds of the cylinder normalized by free stream velocity, in the range of 0–2.5 are considered at various oscillating amplitudes and frequencies and three different Prandtl numbers of 0.7, 6, and 20. Effects of oscillation and rotation of cylinder on the temperature and flow field, vortex lock-on, mean Nusselt number, and the pattern of vortex shedding are investigated in detail considering iso-temperature and iso-flux boundary conditions on the cylinder surface. It is found that similar to the fixed cylinder, beyond a critical rotating speed, vortex shedding is mainly suppressed. Also by increasing the non-dimensional rotational speed of the cylinder, both the Nusselt number and the drag coefficient decrease rapidly. However, in vortex lock-on region, the Nusselt number increases in a large amount.