Experimental and CFD study of wall effects on orderly stacked cylindrical particles heat transfer in a tube channel

In this study, the flow and heat transfer characteristics of regularly arranged cylindrical particles in a bed with bed-to-particle diameter ratio of 2.65 (The particle and bed diameter are 25 and 66 mm respectively and the bed height is 200 mm) have been studied in two different arrangements of particles. The first layout is coaxial particles which embrace 8 layers and 3 equilateral cylindrical particles in each layer); the second arrangement is similar to the first one but the intermittent layers have been rotated 60o. Three dimensional CFD simulation of air flow through these arrangements of particles in bed have been carried out by the standard κ-ε turbulence model with using of FEMLAB (Multiphysics in MATLAB) software version 2.3. For two configurations, comparisons between CFD results and experimental data have been drawn. Our results have been compared with prediction of empirical correlations for pressure drop of flow through the bed. The heat transfer CFD results were validated by naphthalene sublimation mass transfer experiments. The particle Nusselt number was obtained by using analogy between mass and heat transfer. A good quantitative and qualitative agreement between hydrodynamic of CFD simulation and experimental results was gained for both arrangements. The model predicts pressure drop of channel with two arrangements, coaxial and non-coaxial particles with an average error of 10% and 15%, respectively. Moreover, the CFD simulation has predicted the average particle Nusselt numbers of these two arrangements with an average quantitative error of 7% and 14%. Furthermore, the influence of wider range of Reynolds number (2500–6800) on particle Nusselt number has been investigated.