The influence of media properties, geometric and operational parameters on the thermal performance of bilayered composite cylinder

Abstract

This paper presents the investigation of the conjugate heat transfer in a fluid conveying bilayered composite cylindrical pipe subjected to external convection. The problem is considered a two-dimensional problem in each of the three media. A finite difference scheme is employed to discretize the differential equations for the three media and conjugated at the interfaces. Codes were written in C-language which provided a fast solution to the models. The effects of the operational parameters (Peclet and Biot numbers), the media properties (pipe-to-fluid and laminate-to-pipe thermal conductivity ratios) and the geometric parameter (laminate-to-pipe thickness ratio) were investigated on the thermal performance – the Nusselt number of the composite pipe. These parameters and properties were found to influence the thermal performance to varying degrees significantly.