Chemical Engineering Science 54 (1999) 2433}2439

Computational #uid dynamics simulations of #uid #ow and heat

transfer at the wall}particle contact points in a "xed-bed reactor
S.A. Logtenberg, M. Nijemeisland, A.G. Dixon*
Department of Chemical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609-2280, USA

Abstract

An accurate description of the #uid #ow and heat transfer within a "xed-bed reactor is desirable. The prevailing models of #uid #ow
invoke either a constant velocity (plug-#ow) pro"le, or make use of a single axial velocity component with radial variation across the
tube diameter. However, di$culties in predicting reactor performance and the wide disagreement between e!ective heat transfer
coe$cients suggest that these are oversimpli"ed pictures of the real-#ow situation. Computational #uid dynamics is a means that
could improve our understanding of "xed-bed #uid #ow and heat transfer, by solving the 3D Navier}Stokes equations. Simulations
are presented for an improved geometry, compared to previous studies, of 10 solid spheres in a tube with a tube-to-particle ratio of
2.43, that includes both particle to particle and also wall to particle contacts. Simulations are also reported with heat generation from
the spheres. The simulation results show strong #ow components towards the wall and away from the wall, thereby transporting heat.
The #ow around the contact points themselves shows stagnant regions, due to the high shear of the solid surfaces. A high velocity
gradient in the radial direction is observed between two layers of spheres, which clearly shows how the heat transfer is increased within
the bed. Regions of back-#ow are also observed, in qualitative agreement with literature experimental studies.  1999 Elsevier
Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Fixed bed; Computational #uid dynamics; Heat transfer; Fluid #ow; Velocity pro"les; Packed-bed reactor

1. Introduction 1.1. Fixed-bed heat transfer

The problem of understanding and predicting the heat
transfer and #uid #ow in a "xed-bed reactor is one of
long-standing. In particular, narrow tubes of low tube-
to-particle diameter ratio (N), in the range of 3}8, present
di$culties, due to the presence of wall e!ects across the
entire bed radius. However, such tubes are usually used
for reactions with strong heat e!ects, to facilitate removal
of reaction heat. A recent new approach to this problem
is the use of computational #uid dynamics (CFD) to
model #uid #ow and heat transfer near the wall, and thus
to contribute to improving our understanding of these
phenomena.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 001 508 831 5350; fax: 001 508 831
5853; e-mail: agdixon@wpi.edu.
Presently at Procter and Gamble, European Supply Co., Mechelen,
Belgium.
Nowadays, "xed-bed reactors are one of the most
commonly-used reactor types in industry. However, even
though this reactor has been investigated by many re-
searchers over the last 40 years, no consensus over the
heat transfer behavior is found amongst researchers
(Li and Finlayson, 1977; Tsotsas and SchluK nder, 1990;
Vortmeyer and Haidegger, 1991). The reason for this lies
in the complexity of the problem and the limitations of
experimental studies. Over the past decades a lot of
attention has been given to modeling heat transfer behav-
ior in "xed-bed reactors. Most models that are available
in the literature are based on lumping heat transfer mech-
anisms into easier to use models. Today, reactor engin-
eers still prefer to describe the heat transfer behavior
by means of a two-dimensional pseudo-homogeneous
model (Vortmeyer and Haidegger, 1991), normally
referred to as the standard model, which neglects temper-
ature di!erences between the #uid and solid phases. The

0009-2509/99/$ } see front matter  1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 0 9 - 2 5 0 9 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 4 4 5 - X
2434 S.A. Logtenberg et al. /Chemical Engineering Science 54 (1999) 2433}2439
overall heat transfer resistance in the bed is described in
this model by an e!ective radial thermal conductivity k ,
P
lumping together all heat transfer mechanisms, and
a wall-heat transfer coe$cient h , introduced by Coberly
U
and Marshall (1951), to explain the measured &temper-
ature jump' near the wall:
q "h (¹" !¹ ). (1)
P U P0 U The ensuing 3D CFD studies were for a tube contain-
Although this model is simple, the comparison of experi-
mental data with model predictions has been quite dis-
couraging over the last four decades. Also the enormous
number of correlations available in the literature, that
predict the e!ective heat transfer parameters, creates con-
fusion for the chemical reactor design engineer; i.e. which
correlation should be used and how accurate is this?
Recent reviews (Tsotsas and SchluK nder, 1990; Freiwald
and Paterson, 1992) showed that there is still no generally
accepted answer to the question of how to predict the heat
transfer behavior in packed bed reactors. The consequence
is that expensive pilot plants still have to be built in order
to determine the optimum and safe operating conditions.
An accurate description of the #uid #ow and heat transfer
within a "xed-bed reactor is therefore desirable.
The classical models of "xed-bed #uid #ow have usu-
ally invoked a constant velocity (plug-#ow) pro"le. How-
ever, di$culties in predicting reactor performance and
the wide range of correlations for e!ective heat transfer
coe$cients suggest that this may be an oversimpli"ed
picture of the real-#ow situation. Lately, there seems to
be a growing tendency among researchers to include
a single axial velocity component with radial variation
across the tube diameter (Tsotsas and SchluK nder, 1990;
Vortmeyer and Haidegger, 1991; Bey and Eigenberger,
1997). It has not been demonstrated, however, that such
models represent the real-#ow situation within the "xed
bed. Clearly, there is a need for a better fundamental
understanding of #ow patterns and heat transfer in "xed-
bed reactors. Recently, magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) has been used to map the velocity contour pro"le
within a "xed bed (Kutsovsky, et al., 1996; Sederman et
al., 1997) which appears to be a very promising approach.
A disadvantage of this technique is that it is not capable of
investigating the temperature pro"le within the bed. CFD
is a tool with the potential to lead to better understanding
of the #ow and heat transfer behavior in these reactors.
1.2. Computational yuid dynamics
CFD is a fast growing "eld for the study of #uid #ow
and heat transfer. A recent review of the capabilities of
CFD for chemical reaction engineering has been given by
Harris et al. (1996). To apply CFD in a very complex
problem, like a "xed-bed reactor, is however, still very
di$cult. Some of the reasons for this are the high gradi-
ents and the creation of the grid or mesh near the contact
points of two spheres and/or a sphere and the wall.
Previous studies on heat transfer in packings of spheres,
using CFD, were done by Lloyd and Boehm (1994) and
in a series of publications by Dalman et al. (1984a,b,
1986a,b). However, these studies were limited to a 2D
CFD study of a very simpli"ed geometry. A "rst attempt
to use a 3D CFD approach in a simple geometry of three
spheres was done by Derkx and Dixon (1996).
ing eight solid spheres with a tube-to-particle ratio of
2.86 (Logtenberg and Dixon, 1998a,b) using air as a #uid.
Drawbacks of these studies were the small number of
spheres and the fact that no contact points were used,
which may have led to less realistic #ows. In these studies
Nu and k /k values were evaluated at di!erent Re from
U P D
the calculated temperatures at di!erent locations in the
bed, by "tting these with the analytical solution of the
usual two-dimensional pseudo-homogeneous model, us-
ing a non-linear least-squares analysis. The Nu and
U
k /k values showed reasonable qualitative agreement
P D
with both experimental values and values predicted by
a model matching theory for e!ective heat transfer para-
meters (Dixon and Cresswell, 1979). In the "rst study, the
e!ect of pressure and the magnitude of the wall temper-
ature on the e!ective heat transfer parameters was shown
to have no in#uence, which was in qualitative agreement
with results from an experimental study (Borman et al.,
1992). Also, no depth dependence of the Nu and k /k
U P D
was found at Re"131. In the second study, the in#uence
of a cooling versus a heating wall was shown to be small
for high Re, while for low Re a di!erence was found. Also
the e!ects of the viscosity, conductivity and density vari-
ations, as a consequence of temperature variations were
studied using a hydrocarbon mixture as the #uid. Results
indicated that the temperature pro"le had an in#uence
on the #uid and heat #ow and thus on Nu and k /k ,
U P D
although at high Re numbers the in#uence became less.
However, in this geometry the spheres did not touch each
other nor the wall.
In the present paper we discuss a CFD analysis ap-
proach, using a "nite element method (FEM), to study an
improved geometry of 10 spheres with N"2.43, that
includes both particle to particle and also wall to particle
contacts, which is a more realistic representation.
The focus of this paper will be the #ow and temperature
pro"le within the bed, especially near the sphere-wall
contact points. The interaction of the #ow pro"le with
the temperature will be discussed to get a better funda-
mental insight into the #ow and heat transfer character-
istics in "xed-bed reactors. Additionally, results will be
presented for Nu values and k /k values at di!erent Re.
U P D
2. Model analysis
The Navier}Stokes equations for steady-state #uid
#ow, together with the steady-state energy balance, were
 S.A. Logtenberg et al. /Chemical Engineering Science 54 (1999) 2433}2439
solved using a commercially available "nite element
code, ANSYS (version 5.3, Swanson Analysis Systems).
The code includes modules for model generation, solu-
tion of the #uid #ow and energy equations and post-
processing. Details of the numerical methods used and
other speci"cs of the "nite element method have been
given in a previous publication (Derkx and Dixon, 1996).
2.1. CFD geometry model
The geometry for this study consisted of four layers as
shown in Fig. 1, where the "rst layer had one particle on
the center-line of the column, the next two layers each
had four particles and the last layer had one particle on
the center-line again. In this geometry the spheres did
contact each other and the wall. In order not to run into
di$culty with the numerical solution of the geometry
and to make sure the mesh around the contact points was
"ne enough and could actually be created, the mesh was
manually manipulated by including additional circle
lines around the contact points.
The model tube had a total length of 0.20 m and
a diameter of 0.12 m. The spheres were of 0.0494 m dia-
meter, giving N equal to 2.43. The center locations of the
spheres were set at the following positions (0, 0, 0.0347),
($0.0248, $0.0248, 0.0695), ($0.0350724, 0, 0.11098),
(0, $0.0350724, 0.11098) and (0, 0, 0.146) with all coordi-
nates in SI units. The tube was extended after the last
sphere (see Fig. 1) in order to allow the #ow to approxim-
ately develop before it exited. Also a small extension was
used at the inlet (see Fig. 1) so that velocity gradients did
Fig. 1. Vertical section of 10 spheres in a tube, showing the element
mesh.
2435
not become too large in this area, which could lead to
instability of the solution. A "ner mesh was used in the
vicinity of the spheres and the wall. The total number of
elements that was used in this study was approximately
252,000. The shape of the elements were three-dimen-
sional 4-node tetrahedra.
2.2. CFD model equations
The #uid was taken to be incompressible, Newtonian,
and in steady-state laminar or in steady-state turbulent
#ow depending on the value of Re. All #uid properties
were made temperature dependent. The ideal gas law was
used for the density temperature dependency and Suther-
land's law was used for thermal conductivity and viscos-
ity temperature dependencies. Air was chosen as the
standard #uid, for which the constants were available in
the ANSYS database. The following boundary condi-
tions were applied to the model:
(1) a constant temperature and velocity at the inlet;
(2) a constant temperature at the wall;
(3) a no slip velocity condition around the spheres and at
the wall.
For the simulation of heat generation from the spheres
with a cooled wall, a constant temperature was assigned
to the surfaces of the spheres.
When the turbulent model should be activated was
uncertain, because there is no reliable guideline available
for the laminar/turbulent #ow transition for complex
geometries, like a "xed-bed reactor. So in most cases the
laminar and the turbulent #ow solutions were both cal-
culated so that a comparison could be made. Studies to
determine at what Reynolds number the turbulent eddies
start to form in a "xed-bed reactor were done by Jolls
and Hanratty (1966). They found that at Reynolds num-
bers between 60 and 130 turbulence became visible. To-
bis and Ziolkowski (1988) stated that a transition from
laminar to turbulent #ow occured at Re"100. These
results could be used as an indication of when the turbu-
lence model should be activated. Also, which turbulence
model should be used for a speci"c geometry is a subject
which has still not been resolved. A recent review (Brad-
shaw et al., 1996) showed that none of the available
turbulence models was capable of predicting the full
range of #ows in complex (strongly non-equilibrium)
#ows to good engineering accuracy, but stress-transport
models seemed to perform best. In this study the stan-
dard k-e model was used, because it was the only avail-
able turbulence model in ANSYS/FLOTRAN.
2.3. Numerical solution
A numerical solution was obtained when the conver-
gence monitors for all the variables were no longer
monotonically decreasing and the average, maximum
2436 S.A. Logtenberg et al. /Chemical Engineering Science 54 (1999) 2433}2439

and minimum values of the solution variables no longer

had a monotonic trend. The convergence monitor was
de"ned as

, "
I!
I\ "
Convergence Monitor" G G ,
"
I "
G G
where
is v , v , v , P or ¹.
G V W X
It must be clear that there is no single exact answer to
the nonlinear 3D Navier}Stokes equations, especially in
complex geometries, since nature does not guarantee that
a single exact answer will exist. Problems which are
oscillatory in nature (e.g. vortex shedding behind
a sphere) may not yield stationary results from a steady-
state solution algorithm. It is important that the mass
and energy balances are solved within acceptable limits,
in this study set at 5%. It appeared that at higher Re the
solution became more unstable, which could indicate
unstable eddies or vortex shedding behind or in between
the spheres.
Fig. 2. Velocity vector plots of a vertical slice near wall}particle contact
points at di!erent Re.

3. Results and discussion

The main focus of this work was to include wall}par-
ticle and particle}particle contacts in the CFD models of
#uid #ow and heat transfer in "xed-bed reactor tubes,
that were previously developed (Derkx and Dixon, 1996;
Logtenberg and Dixon, 1998a, b). The model was indeed
successfully solved, and realistic velocity and temper-
ature pro"les obtained. The direct validation of CFD
simulations by comparison to experimental data, using
the same geometry for both, is the focus of future e!orts.
The simulations reported here gave rise to some interest-
ing observations, discussed below.
3.1. Velocity vector xelds and temperature contours of
heating experiments
Velocity vector plots were made for the elements lying
in a vertical slice of the cylinder, centered on the tube
axis, by selecting the nodes in the region !0.005(y
(0.005 and 0.0347(z(0.10348. The wall temper-
atures of these runs were set at 600 K, with an inlet
temperature of 300 K. Air was used as the #uid, with
temperature-dependent properties. In Fig. 2 vector plots
are shown for Re"42, 182, 801 and 3344. The length of
an arrow is proportional to the magnitude of the velocity
vector, and the arrow points in the same direction as the
local #ow. The positions of the spheres in these plots are
indicated by the large open areas, where there is, of
course, no #ow. Due to the fact that the mesh is "ner in
the vicinity of the contact points of the spheres, more
vectors are visible close to the spheres.
In Fig. 2, the vector plots show that the #uid #ows
around the spheres and is accelerating as it #ows in the
gaps between the spheres (long arrows). The strong #ows
through the middle and on the side just above the second
layer of spheres are caused by the open gap in the
structure of the bed. It is noticeable that in the vicinity of
the wall}particle contact points, there are quite strong
radial components of #ow, which would lead to high
rates of e!ective radial heat transfer. In the gaps between
sphere layers, however, the #ow is more parallel to the
wall, which would correspondingly reduce radial heat
transfer rates. It would therefore be expected that the
local wall-heat transfer coe$cient would vary quite
strongly over the length-scale of a particle diameter or so,
and this behavior was also observed in our previous
models without contact points (Logtenberg and Dixon,
1998a). Over length-scales corresponding to many par-
ticle diameters, however, the average heat transfer rate
may be well-represented by an average value of the wall
heat transfer coe$cient.
In Fig. 2 it can also be seen that with Re"42, the
velocity pro"le shows laminar #ow with no eddies any-
where. With Re"182 we can see very small eddies form-
ing at the wall, just above the middle of the second layer
of spheres. With Re"801 and 3344 these strong eddies
are becoming very clear. They are caused by the strong
radial #ow from the middle towards the wall, which
&splits' up in an upward and a downward axial #ow at the
wall. This downward or &reverse' #ow in packed-bed reac-
tors was also found by Kutsovsky et al. (1996) who used an
MRI imaging technique to obtain velocity contour plots
within the bed. The upward axial #ow corresponds to the
region of #ow parallel to the wall, discussed above.
Due to this increased axial and reduced radial #ow
at the wall the local radial heat transfer will decrease,
 S.A. Logtenberg et al. /Chemical Engineering Science 54 (1999) 2433}2439
thereby causing the well-known &temperature jump' near
the wall. So, due to the &side stepping' of #uid #ow,
especially in the radial direction, and the shape and
constraint of the wall, a strong axial #ow is created near
the wall. This is also facilitated by the higher void frac-
tion at the wall. However, at low Re this does not occur,
which may provide a partial explanation for the fact that
the heat transfer at low to moderate Re is not well
understood. At what Re exactly this transition occurs will
probably vary for each system, depending on the #uid,
solid material, temperature range and geometry struc-
ture. In this system or geometry the transition occurs just
above Re"182. Also, it must be clear that if the
Reynolds numbers increase, the convective heat trans-
port will automatically increase due to an increase in the
magnitude of the velocity.
In Fig. 3 temperature contour plots are shown for the
same slice as in Fig. 2, to demonstrate how the temper-
ature "eld was changing with the #ow rate. The darkness
is an indication of the magnitude of the temperature, with
the transition from black to white corresponding to the
temperature range from 600 to 300 K. The temperature
discontinuities are the consequence of averaging temper-
atures in the inside of an element from the calculated
temperatures of the nodes of that element, as well as the
choice of the contour values. The contour plots were
made at Re"42, 182, 801 and 3344, similar to Fig. 2. It
can be seen that the temperature pro"le is not totally
symmetrical at the two high Re numbers. This could be
the consequence of round-o! errors or instabilities that
come from unstable eddies within the bed. Just below the
height where the particles of layer two and layer three
touch each other, it can be seen that the heat transfer
near the wall is very good, because the temperature
Fig. 3. Temperature contour plots of a vertical slice near the wall}particle contact points at various Re.
2437
pro"le is penetrating the bed very rapidly. However, just
above this point the temperature pro"le is &pushed back'
due to the strong #ow that comes from the middle of the
bed. One can clearly see that values for Nu will change
U
with the bed height and will depend on the structure and
#ow pro"le near the wall. One unique wall-heat transfer
coe$cient for the whole bed seems, therefore, an ap-
proach that is not really realistic, but which may be
a practical necessity. The temperature contour plots
show the strong interaction of the temperature pro"le
with the #uid #ow pattern.
3.2. Nu and k /k values
U P D
For the calculations of Nu and k /k , k was kept as
U P D D
a constant reference value (k "0.03) and for the calcu-
D
lation for Re the mass #ux G"ov and the average values
for the viscosity in the bed were used. In Fig. 4a values for
k /k and in Fig. 4b values for Nu are shown at di!erent
P D U
Re, which was generated by a method similar to that used
in previous studies (Logtenberg and Dixon, 1998a, b).
The predictions of a frequently-used model for the e!ec-
tive heat transfer parameters (Dixon and Cresswell, 1979)
are included for reference. The 95% con"dence intervals
are not shown in these "gures, since they were smaller
than the sizes of the symbols. This is due to "tting to so
many &data' points. Values for both the laminar and
turbulent solutions are shown, for the axially-dispersed
plug-#ow (ADPF) model, for Re between 20 and 182, to
show the in#uence of the choice of laminar or turbulent
#ow on the values of Nu and k /k .
U P D
In Fig. 4a, where k /k is plotted versus Re, the values
P D
show reasonable agreement with the e!ective parameter
predictions. In Fig. 4b, where Nu versus Re is plotted,
U N
2438 S.A. Logtenberg et al. /Chemical Engineering Science 54 (1999) 2433}2439
Fig. 4. Comparison of CFD and predictive model values of e!ective
parameters (a) k /k as a function of Re; (b) Nu as a function of Re.
P D U
a unexpected change in trend for Nu between 182 and
U
801 can be seen, which could be explained due to the
change of the #uid #ow behavior near the wall, at #ow
rates around those Re numbers, as mentioned above. The
agreement with the predictive model is of the same order
of magnitude, but Fig. 4b really shows that the model is
not predicting the same values as the ones obtained from
the CFD simulations. It must however be emphasized
that neither is a de"nite benchmark for these values. In
addition, the formulas of Dixon and Cresswell (1979)
were not developed for the value of N simulated here, and
also the relatively short bed length in the CFD simula-
tions may cause some di$culty in getting values of Nu
U
suitable for comparison to predictive formulas based on
experiments using longer beds.
3.3. Inyuence of heat generation from the solid sphere
packing
Velocity plots were also created from a slice, similar to
Fig. 2, for three di!erent cases. In the "rst case, a gas with
inlet temperature 600 K is cooled by #ow through a bed
with the wall held at 300 K, with no heat production
from the spheres. The second case is one in which a gas
with inlet temperature 600 K gets cooled in a bed with
the wall at 300 K, with heat produced from the spheres,
which are held at ¹ "650 K, similar to a chemical

reactor. The last case is the base case similar to the results
in Fig. 2, where a cool gas of 300 K gets heated by #ow
through a bed with the wall at 600 K with no heat
produced from the spheres. In all circumstances the inlet
velocity was kept constant, i.e. Re"801. It was shown
that there was not much di!erence in the #ow patterns
between these three cases. In particular, the heat produc-
tion from the spheres did not appear to have any notice-
able e!ect on the #uid #ow near the spheres, which would
argue against the expectation that e!ective heat transfer
from reacting particles should be di!erent than for non-
reacting particles.
Previous studies (Logtenberg and Dixon, 1998b) had
shown a di!erence in #ow pro"le between wall-heated
and wall-cooled tubes at very low Reynolds number
(Re"20), and not for high Reynolds number
(Re"1300). However, no wall}particle contact points
were used in that study. The solid conduction pathway,
comprising solid}solid contacts and the stagnant "llets of
gas close to the contact points, would be expected to
contribute a more signi"cant fraction of the total heat
#ux at low Re. If it were omitted, conduction through the
gas would be the only heat transfer mechanism, and this
would be more sensitive to the e!ects of temperature-
dependent physical properties such as viscosity and ther-
mal conductivity.
4. Conclusions
A packed-bed "nite element model, consisting of 10
spheres, at a tube-to-particle diameter ratio N"2.43
was constructed, that included particle}particle and
wall}particle contact points. Fluid #ow and heat transfer
in the model bed were simulated using computational
#uid dynamics (CFD) techniques. Velocity vector pro"les
near the wall}particle contact points were obtained for
di!erent Re numbers varying from Re"42 up to 3344.
These pro"les showed the formation of an eddy at high
Re, near the wall}particle contact points, that locally
increased the heat transfer near the wall. The simulation
of eddies and regions of back-#ow in packed tubes is in
 S.A. Logtenberg et al. /Chemical Engineering Science 54 (1999) 2433}2439
qualitative agreement with recent observations using
MRI, and could be signi"cant in the modeling and under-
standing of reactor behavior. At low Re ((182) no eddy
was found, causing a di!erent #ow pattern and heat trans-
fer behavior in the bed, compared to higher #ow rates.
Comparisons between velocity vector pro"les for
a wall-cooled bed, and a wall-heated bed with and with-
out heat generation from the spheres, showed no signi"-
cant di!erences in the velocity vector pro"les at Re"801.
Values for Nu and k /k for di!erent Re numbers were
U P D
calculated from temperature pro"les, obtained from the
CFD results. Results for Nu showed a change in trend
U Coberly, C.A., & Marshall, W.R. Jr. (1951). Temperature gradients in
for Re numbers ranging from 182 up to 800. This was
considered to be due to the formation of an eddy near the
wall, as explained above.
The extension of our "nite element CFD modeling
work to include wall}particle and particle}particle con-
tact points is the most signi"cant result in this paper.
Success in this modeling challenge is a necessary precur-
sor to the extension of the CFD work to more realistic,
larger models of slim "xed-bed reactor tubes.
Notation
d diameter, m
h wall heat transfer coe$cient, W/mK
U Dixon, A.G., & Cresswell, D.L. (1979). Theoretical prediction of e!ec-
k thermal conductivity, W/mK
k e!ective radial thermal conductivity, W/mK
P 676.
k #uid molecular thermal conductivity, W/mK
D Freiwald, M.G., & Paterson, W.R. (1992). Accuracy of model predic-
N tube to particle ratio, d /d
R N
q wall heat #ux, W/m
r radial coordinate, m
R tube radius, m
¹ temperature, K
v super"cial gas velocity, m/s
x Cartesian x-coordinate, m
y Cartesian y-coordinate, m
z Cartesian z-coordinate, m
Greek letters
k #uid viscosity, Ns/m
o density of #uid phase, kg/m
Subscripts
f #uid
p particle
r radial
s solid
w wall
Dimensionless groups
Nu wall Nusselt number, hd /k
U N D
2439
Pe Peclet number, Gc d /k
N N P
Re Reynolds number, ovd /k
N
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