STEADY FLOW OF NON-NEWTONIAN FLUIDS ACROSS AN ARRAY OF CIRCULAR CYLINDERS

Abstract

Steady Flow of power law fluids across an array of circular cylinders arranged in a square manner is investigated by solving continuity, momentum and energy equations using FLUENT (version 6.3.26). The effect of various parameters like power law index, Reynolds number and void fraction on fluid flow and heat transfer has been studied over a wide range of power law index, 0.5 < n < 1.5, Reynolds number, 5 < Re< 60, void fraction, 0.6 < e< 0.9 and Prandtl number of 0.7. Variation of dimensionless pressure gradient, drag coefficient, pressure coefficient, vorticity, average Nusselt number with these parameters has been shown and it is found that these parameters have a significant effect on them e.g. Nusselt numbers values are found to be higher in case of lower void fraction and lower power law index. A series of streamline plots have also been included to show clearly the effect of varying these parameters on flow.