Heat Transfer Study of Polymer Solutions with Different Rigidities

Abstract

The heat transfer behaviors of non-Newtonian fluids under laminar flow conditions in circular tubes are presented in this study. The constant wall heat flux is considered as a boundary condition for dilute polymer solutions with different polymer rigidities. A mathematic method was introduced to model the rigidity of polymer chain's effect on the dynamic viscosity of dilute polymer solution. Results were also obtained for the dilute polymer solutions under both hydro-dynamically developing and hydro-dynamically developed conditions. In case of a smooth circular tube with dilute polymer solution, the results of Nusselt numbers and fanning friction factors were obtained by varying initial Reynolds number and polymer rigidity. The effects of the polymer rigidity and the Reynolds number on the Nusselt number were found to be small. It was also observed that the friction factor and the performance evaluation criteria were strongly dependent on both polymer rigidity and Reynolds number.