A Numerical Procedure for the Laminar Heat Transfer in Curved Square Ducts

The fully developed forced convective heat transfer flow in a curved square duct is studied, under a constant uniform wall temperature axially and peripherally. The continuity and momentum equations are solved with a new numerical-variational method denoted the CVP method. The method uses a nonstaggered grid for all primitive variables without introducing spurious oscillations in the solutions. Numerical results are presented for the effects of the curvature, the Dean number and the stream pressure gradient, on the velocity, the temperature, the friction factor, and the Nusselt number for fluids with Prandtl numbers 0.7 and 7. The accuracy of the method is discussed, and the results are in close agreement with those obtained by other methods.