Local Heat Transfer Measurements in Turbulent Flow Around a 180-deg Pipe Bend

The paper reports extensive connective heat transfer data for turbulent flow of air around a U-bend with a ratio of bend radius:pipe diameter of 3.375:1. Experiments cover Reynolds numbers from 2 × 10⁴ to 1.1 × 10⁵. Measurements of local heat transfer coefficient are made at six stations and at five circumferential positions at each station. At Re = 6 × 10⁴ a detailed mapping of the temperature field within the air is made at the same stations. The experiment duplicates the flow configuration for which Azzola and Humphrey [3] have recently reported laser-Doppler measurements of the mean and turbulent velocity field. The measurements show a strong augmentation of heat transfer coefficient on the outside of the bend and relatively low levels on the inside associated with the combined effects of secondary flow and the amplification/suppression of turbulent mixing by streamline curvature. The peak level of Nu occurs halfway around the bend at which position the heat transfer coefficient on the outside is about three times that on the inside. Another feature of interest is that a strongly nonuniform Nu persists six diameters downstream of the bend even though secondary flow and streamline curvature are negligible there. At the entry to the bend there are signs of partial laminarization on the inside of the bend, an effect that is more pronounced at lower Reynolds numbers.