Numerical study of fluid flow and convective heat transfer characteristics in a sinusoidal wavy circular tube

This study presents an investigation of the flow and heat transfer characteristics in a Sinusoidal wavy circular tube (SWCT). We solved numerically the conservation equations of continuity, momentum and energy which govern the steady, three-dimensional, and incompressible fluid flow and the heat transfer in the SWCT. The friction factor, heat transfer rate, and goodness factors of the SWCT were taken into consideration as performance metrics. The present paper also discusses the effect of the geometry parameters, such as the peak amplitude and wavelength, on the distribution of the local pressure coefficient, fluid flow, wall vorticity and local Nusselt number in the sinusoidal wavy circular tube. The simulations were performed for the different Reynolds numbers of 100, 1000 and 10000. The calculated results were evaluated in terms of the friction factor and Colburn j factor, and their overall performance was estimated using the area and volume goodness factors.