Numerical investigation of buoyancy effect on heat transfer to carbon dioxide flow in a tube at supercritical pressures

A numerical analysis of the buoyancy effect on heat transfer to carbon dioxide flow at supercritical pressures in a vertical heated tube has been carried out using the FLUENT computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool with the shear-stress-transport low Reynolds number eddy viscosity turbulence model. It covered the 1200-mm heated section and included 500-mm unheated section upstream for flow development. Wall temperatures calculated from the …