A Study of Some Turbulence Models for Flow and Heat Transfer in Ducts of Annular Cross-Section

A variable property finite-difference calculation procedure is used to predict turbulent flow and heat transfer parameters in annular passages. Predictions from several turbulence models are compared with measurements over a range of flow and thermal conditions. Of the models considered, one utilizing transport equations for turbulence kinetic energy and characteristic mixing length scale gave the best overall performance. The inclusion of turbulence kinetic energy in the turbulence modeling was found not to be crucial for predicting isothermal flows or for predicting all parameters except the temperature distribution for flows with heat transfer at Reynold numbers greater than 110,000.