Optimization Study of Power-Law Fluids Staggered Circular Cylinders in Laminar Forced Convection

In this study, for power-law fluids, a two-dimensional heat transfer analysis was performed in a circular cylinder to determine the ideal distance between cylinders in equilateral triangle configurations for forced convection in free stream cross-flow.The cylinder array is in contact with a free stream of a specific temperature and velocity while occupying a set volume.The optimal cylinder-to-cylinder spacing is determined by maximizing the overall thermal conductance between all the cylinders and the free stream.The numerical study was conducted to maximize the heat transfer rate over the range of Reynolds number, 40 ≤ Re ≤ 200; power-law index, 0.2 ≤ n ≤ 1.3; Prandtl number, 1 ≤ Pr ≤ 100; and geometries with spacing from cylinder-to cylinder, 0.5 ≤ S/D ≤ 2. The governing equations have been solved for the steady state flow over the range of parameters by employing finite-element numerical scheme.The flow and thermal field by using hot cylinder arranged in triangular array is analysed by plotting the streamlines and isotherms.The thermal heat conductance increases for the shear thinning fluids as Reynolds number increases and on further increasing the Prandtl number.The relation for thermal heat conductance with Prandtl number for extreme values of Reynolds number is also shown for different values of power-law index.