Numerical Analysis of Turbulent Flow in a Small Helically Segmented Finned Tube Bank

A full finned tube bank is represented as a small finned tube bank in order to analyze numerically mean properties behavior in the streamwise direction. The main goal is to obtain criteria for implementing periodic boundary conditions in a single isolated finned tube module. The simulation is carried out with the Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes method and the turbulence effect is modeled with the Renormalization Group k-ϵ model. The complex geometry of finned tube is represented by means of a cut-cell method. Numerical results are compared with experimental data, experimental visualizations, and semi-empirical correlations. Predictions show an adequate hydrodynamics and heat transfer representation. Additionally, mean properties in the streamwise direction show quasi-sinusoidal behavior, and the heat transfer presents approximately identical values in every finned tube in the fully developed flow zone. Therefore, periodic boundary conditions for turbulent kinetic energy and its dissipation rate and a constant wall heat flux condition in the fully developed flow are proposed in numerical simulations on a single isolated finned tube module.