Convective Heat Transfer of Laminar Swirling Pipe Flow With Viscous Dissipation Effects

The oil-water-gas separation is a critical aspect of the treatment of production flows in the oil industry. The segregation of gas bubbles and/or water droplets dispersed in viscous oil by an in-line swirling flow separator has been considered by the oil industry for topside and subsea applications. For high viscosity oils, heat transfer processes can be affected. Works addressing these applications are rare in the literature. In this way, the article presents a numerical investigation on heat transfer characteristics in a decaying swirling flow, considering the effects of viscosity dissipation due to the high viscosity of the fluid. The flow has both velocity and temperature profiles developing simultaneously in a tube with a constant diameter having a uniform wall heat flux in a laminar flow regime, particularly the behavior of heat transfer characteristics for strongly swirling numbers considering viscous dissipation. Three swirl numbers (S = 0.0, 0.3, and 0.7) and five Brinkman numbers (Br = 0.0, 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, and 10.0) were investigated and the effects of those parameters on the dimensionless temperature profiles, Nusselt number and viscous dissipation function were examined. The heat transfer analysis indicated that the swirling flow affects the fluid's axial and radial temperature distribution. They promoted increased fluid in wall temperature and bulk temperature and affected the local Nusselt number distribution.