Interactive free convection from a pair of vertical tube-arrays at moderate Rayleigh numbers

Steady laminar free convection from a pair of vertical arrays of equally-spaced, horizontal isothermal cylinders set in free air, is studied numerically. A specifically developed computer-code based on the SIMPLE-C algorithm is used for the solution of the mass, momentum and energy transfer governing equations. Simulations are performed for pairs of tube-arrays consisting of 1-4 circular cylinders, for center-to-center horizontal and vertical spacings from 1.4 to 24 cylinder-diameters, and from 2 to 12 cylinder-diameters, respectively, and for values of the Rayleigh number based on the cylinder-diameter in the range between 10(2) and 10(4). It is found that any cylinder may exhibit either enhanced or reduced Nusselt numbers with respect to the case of single tube-array, depending on its location in the array, on the geometry of the array, as well as on the Rayleigh number. Heat transfer dimensionless correlating equations are also proposed. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd