76

2015,27(1):76-84
DOI: 10.1016/S1001-6058(15)60458-9

Flow and heat transfer characteristics around egg-shaped tube*

ZHANG Guan-min ()1, LENG Xue-li ()1, ZHOU Nai-xiang ()2, SHI Yan-ping ()3,
LI Li-min ()3
1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China,
E-mail: zhgm@sdu.edu.cn
2. Shandong Urban and Rural Planning and Design Institute, Jinan 250013, China
3. Shanxi Fenxi Heavy Industry Co. Ltd. Technical Center, Taiyuan 030027, China
(Received June 22, 2013, Revised January 16, 2014)
Abstract: This paper studies the flow and heat transfer characteristics around a new type of egg-shaped tubes made up of a semicircle upstream and a semi-ellipse downstream, numerically and experimentally, for Reynolds numbers varying from 4 000 to 5 0000
based on the hydraulic diameter. These tubes have axis ratios, = 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, and 5 with the major axis parallel to the mainstream. When = 1 , the tube is a circular one and when 1/ = 0 , it is a flat plate. Numerical results show that the minimum value
of C p occurs at an angular position, which decreases as decreases, and the maximum value of C f gradually increases with
the increase of . Simulated results agree very well with those available in the existing literature. The egg-shaped tube has a higher
favorable pressure gradient at its front and a lower adverse pressure gradient at its back, that helps the flow delay a separation from
the tubes surface. Empirical correlations for each tube are obtained by numerical simulations relating the dimensionless heat transfer
coefficient with the Reynolds Number and the Prandtl Number. The performance evaluation criterion (PEC) is used to analyze the
level of the heat transfer enhancement for egg-shaped tubes. It is found that an egg-shaped tube with = 2 has the best overall heat
transfer performance when Re 11 952 .
Key words: heat transfer enhancement, egg-shaped tube, numerical simulation, flow resistance

Introduction
Circular tubes are widely used in heat exchange
equipment because of the ease of production and its
capability of withstanding a high pressure. However
when the fluid flows across a circular tube, a large separation zone created by the boundary layer separation
is developed at the rear of tube, which can result in
large pressure drop losses, severe vibrations and even
damages to the tube.
In recent years, non-circular tubes with a streamlined outer surface have attracted attentions in the
* Project supported by the Science and Technology Development Planning of Shandong Province (Grant No.
2012GGX10421).
Biography: ZHANG Guan-min (1973-), Male, Ph. D.,
Professor
Corresponding author: LENG Xue-li,
E-mail: lengxl@sdu.edu.cn

context of saving energies[1-8]. A tube with a cross

section of elliptic shape produces less flow resistance
and higher heat transfer rates, and comparing with a
circular tube, the drag coefficient is reduced by between 10% and 20%[9]. Smooth and fined elliptical
tubes have been used widely in a variety of industries
(i.e., electric power engineering, metallurgy, oil refining technologies, chemical industry and shipbuilding
industry, etc.). The drop-shaped tube is another heat
transfer element with high efficiency and energy saving properties. Its cross-sectional profile is shown in
Fig.1, which is composed of two sections: circular arc
and their tangents. Studies show that the convective
heat transfer coefficient increases for the drop-shaped
tube by 20%-30% as compared to a circular tube; the
drag coefficient is only 30%-50% of that of a circular
tube[10].
Nouri-Borujerdi and Lavasani[11,12], Horvat et
[13]
al. summarized the results of related studies concerning the pressure drag coefficient and the Nusselt
number around a streamlined single tube or a tube

77

bundle. They found that all noncircular tubes have

small drag coefficients and high Nusselt numbers as
compared to circular tubes with the same circumferential length.

Fig.1 Drop-shaped tube

This paper proposes a new shape tube of easier

production and higher pressure-bearing performance
as compared with that of streamlined tubes mentioned
in literature, which features an egg-shaped cross section composed of half a circle upstream and a semielliptic shape downstream. No mention is found of
this new shape tube so far. In this paper, the characteristics of the flow and heat transfer around the new
shape tube surface immersed in a thick, turbulent
boundary layer are investigated both numerically and
experimentally. Especially the influence of axis ratio,
, on the heat transfer and the flow is determined for
a better understanding of the mechanism and characteristics of the heat transfer enhancement of this new
type tube.

tubes with the egg-shaped cross section. The axis ratios, ( L / D) , of these tubes are 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
To insure a same heat exchange area, they have a
same circumference. The standard circular tube is represented by an axis ratio equal to 1. Figure 2(a)
shows the cross-sections of the five tube shapes and
the equivalent standard circular tube. Size parameters
of the five tubes are listed in Table 1. L , D and S
are the major axis, the minor axis of egg-shaped tubes
and the distance along the body surface, respectively,
as shown in Fig.2(b). For a proper comparison of the
total drag and the heat transfer from egg-shaped tubes
with different axis ratios, a suitable characteristic length is used in both the Reynolds and Nusselt numbers.
The characteristic length De is defined as the diameter of the equivalent standard circular tube.
As seen in Table 1, the cross sectional areas of
the egg-shaped tube ( 1) are smaller than that of
the circular tube with an equal circumference, for example, the cross sectional area of tube E is only 52% of
that of a circular tube with the same circumference. In
other words, the heat transfer area of the tubes outside part is much larger than that of a circular tube
with the same cross sectional area. So the structure of
the heat exchanger made of egg-shaped tubes can be
more compact and the installation space needed is
smaller.
1.2 Mathematical model
In order to simplify the numerical model, the following major assumptions are adopted in this study:
(1) Flow and heat transfer are two-dimensional
and steady.
(2) Gravity and buoyancy lift is negligible.
(3) The thermo-physical properties of the air are
constant and the local thermodynamic equilibrium is
satisfied.
(4) Ambient temperature T is constant, and the
flow is uniform with a constant velocity, U .
(5) The surface of tubes is smooth, and satisfies
the no-slip velocity boundary conditions.
(6) In the case of an isothermal tube, the surface
temperature of the wall is specified as Tw with the radiation heat dissipation from the wall being neglected.
With the preceding hypotheses, the equations of
continuity, momentum and energy for the two-dimensional incompressible flow around the tubes are, respectively, written as:

Fig.2 Cross-sections of egg-shaped tubes

1. Formulation and analysis

1.1 Physical model
The present analyses consider five infinitely long

u v
+
=0
x y

2u 2u
u
u
1 p
+v
=
+ 2 + 2
x
y
y
x
x

(1)

(2a)

78

Table 1 The size parameters for different tubes

Tube type

Minor axis
D / 102m

Major axis
L / 102m

Tube A

3.000

Tube B

Axis ratio

Cross section area

Ah / 104m2

( L / D)

3.000

7.0686

1.0

2.359

3.539

6.5588

1.5

Tube C

1.914

3.829

5.7574

2.0

Tube D

1.369

4.108

4.4202

3.0

Tube E

1.057

4.227

3.5058

4.0

Tube F

0.857

4.280

2.8848

5.0

2v 2v
v
v
1 p
+v
=
+ 2 + 2
x
y
y
y
x
2T 2T
T
T
+v
= 2 + 2
x
y
y
x

Circumference
P / 102m

9.425

(2b)

(3)

where u , v are the component velocities in the x and y - directions, respectively, , , and T are
the kinematic viscosity, the density, the thermal diffusivity and the temperature of the air, respectively.
Above equations are used to describe the turbulent
flow problems, so the sympols u , v , p and T denote the instantaneous values of the corresponding
pulsating physical quantities.
The RNG k - turbulent model is selected for
the turbulent calculation. The k equation and the
equation in the RNG k - model are as follows:

which is given by

C 3 1 2
0
R =
1 + 3
k

(6)

where = Sk / , 0 = 4.38 , = 0.012 .

The RNG k - model can produce a better response in the case of an instantaneous changing flow
and a curved flow line with the function of additional
term R , as compared with the standard k - model.
This is the reason why the RNG k - model describes well the condition of a strong curved flow line, the
vortex or rotating flow.

k
( k ) +
( kui ) =
ak eff
+ Gk + S k

i
j
j
(4)

( ) +
( ui ) =
a eff
+ C1 Gk
k

i
j
j

Fig.3 CFD Mesh of Tube C (tube with axis ratio, = 2 )

Table 2 Numerical simulation settings
Settings

Choice

Solver

Segregated steady

Material

Air

where Gk represents the generation of the turbulent

Viscous model

k -

kinetic energy due to the mean velocity gradients, C1 ,

Pressure-velocity coupling

SIMPLEC

C2 are the model constants and C1 = 1.42 , C2 =

Pressure

C2

2
k

R + S

(5)

1.68, ak and a are the turbulent Prandtl number in

the k equation and the equation, respectively, and
Sk and S are defined under practical conditions.
Additional term R is the major difference between
the RNG k - model and the standard k - model,

Standard
nd

Momentum

2 order upwind

Energy

2nd order upwind

Turbulent kinetic energy

2nd order upwind

Turbulent dissipation rate

2nd order upwind

79

Fig.4 Wind tunnel system

1.3 Numerical resolution

1.3.1 Numerical methodologies
Equations (1)-(6), with the appropriate boundary
conditions, are solved numerically by a commercial finite volume CFD code, Fluent. To minimize the effect
of the far-field boundary conditions, the boundary of
the computational domain must be placed sufficiently
far away from the tube. A rectangular domain
(lengh width = 40 De 20 De ) is chosen to simulate
the unbounded flow past the tubes in order to insure
that the outer boundaries do not have any noticeable
effect on the CFD simulation flow parameters. In the
numerical model, a triangular mesh is used, and the
area near the tube wall is carefully meshed by using a
boundary layer technique to refine and minimize the
grid size. This is necessary in order to observe the air
flow around the tubes and to calculate the distribution
of velocities and temperatures precisely near the wall.
In Fig.3, the mesh of a tube with an axis ratio = 2
is illustrated.
Uniform incoming fluid velocity is set for the
entry computation region. The range of the inlet velocity, U , is from 2 m/s to 24 m/s, with the inlet temperature, T , set as 293 K. Outer boundaries are set
as adiabatic, with a no-slip boundary condition, and a
constant surface wall temperature, Tw , is equal to
353 K. The standard wall function method is adopted
near the wall. Table 2 summarizes the simulation
mode and the discretization conditions.
1.3.2 Mesh size independence and model validation
Several cases are tested with an increasing grid
refinement to ensure that the solutions are independent
of the mesh size. Four schemes to simulate a circular
tube at Re = 11 952 are tested with a various number
of grid elements (82 935, 95 408, 106 045 and
124 422 total grid elements). It is shown that the variation of the pressure coefficient, C p , for different
grid schemes, is very small and the maximum relative
error is only 1.78 %. So a grid scheme with 106 045
total mesh elements is chosen for use to optimize the
computation time and the accuracy of the solution. In

the same way, the mesh size independence for other

egg-shaped tubes is tested.
From the studies of Zhukauskas and Ziugzda[14],
the following correlation to calculate the dimensionless heat transfer for the flow around a circular tube is
obtained

Pr
Nu = 0.26 Re0.6 Pr 0.37

Prw

0.25

(7)

which is valid for Re = 103 - 2 105 and where Nu =

Deh / , Pr = / , Re = DeU / .
In order to validate the numerical model, the heat
transfer of the circular tube is simulated, and an empirical correlation is obtained for the Reynolds number
in the range Re = 4 000 - 50 000 as

Nu = 0.257 Re

0.602

Pr

0.37

Pr

Prw

0.25

(8)

Comparing Eqs.(7) and (8), it is shown that the

results of this study agree well with the results of
Zhukauskas, indicating that the model and the method
of the CFD simulation presented in this study is reasonable and reliable.
2. Experiment apparatus and technique

2.1 Experiment setup

A suction type wind tunnel constructed using acrylic resin boards is shown in Fig.4. Its test section
cross section is 0.3 m0.1 m.
A Pitot tube is mounted at the entrance of the test
section to measure the velocity of the air. The pressure
drop is determined by measuring the static pressure
before and after the test specimen using a Testo 512
micromanometer connected to the pressure taps. The
temperatures of the tube surface and the air in the test
section are measured using copper-constantan thermocouples (Type T) calibrated by standard glass thermometers with a 0.01oC resolution.

80

The velocity detection using a Pitot tube is based

on the Bernoullis equation
pa

2
a

2
m

U
p U
=
+
2
2
f

(9)

The mean air velocity in the test section can be

obtained as
2

where G , c p , Tout and Tin are the mass flowing through the effective heat exchange zone, the specific
heat of the air, the outlet temperature and the inlet
temperature, respectively.
The average temperatures of the inlet and the
outlet of the air through the effective heat transfer
zone can be calculated as follows:

1 i =6
Ti
5 i =2

(12)

1 i =13
Ti
5 i =9

(13)

(10)

Tin =

where pa is the stagnation pressure, p is the inlet

Tout =

Um =

( pa p ) =

pressure, f is the density of the inlet air, U m is the

average velocity of the air in the test section.

The average temperature of the air in the test section can be calculated as
Tf =

(Tin + Tout )
2

(14)

The average temperature of the tube surface can

be calculated as

Fig.5 Schematic diagram of the temperature measuring points

on the tube surface and the air surrounded in the test section

The air temperature is measured at fourteen measuring points (numbered from 1 to 14), as shown in
Fig.5, while the surface temperature of the tube is
measured at eighteen points (numbered from 15 to
32).
The egg-shaped tubes made of cast aluminum (A,
C, D, E) are tested experimentally using the same
cross-section size as that used in the numerical simulation as shown in Table 1. The tube is electrically
heated in order to produce the uniform heat flux boundary condition on the wall. Since the air flow is turbulent, the air is violently mixed there. Under the above
condition, the influences of the uniform heat flux and
the uniform wall temperature on the heat transfer can
be considered as equivalent[15].

Tw =

1 i =32
Ti
18 i =15

(15)

Then the average convective heat transfer coefficient on the air side can be obtained from the following equation
havg =

Q1
A(Tw T f )

(16)

where the effective heat transfer area, A , of the tube

is calculated as A = PH , with P and H being the
circumference of the cross section and the effective
heating length of the tube, respectively, Tw and T f
are the average temperatures of the heated tube surface and the air in the test section, respectively.

2.2 Data processing and reliability analysis

The experiments show that the air inlet temperatures of points from 8 to14 are nearly the same. That
helps to define an effective heat transfer zone as
shown by the dotted rectangle in Fig.5. The size of the
dotted rectangle is 0.15 m0.4 m. The heat absorbed
by the air from the surface of the tube can be determined by calculating the enthalpy increase of the air
between the inlet and the outlet.
Q2 = Gc p (Tout Tin )

(11)

Fig.6 Comparison of Nusselt number of the experimental results and the empirical correlation of Zhukauskas

81

To assess the accuracy of the experiment results,

the circular tube A with a diameter of 0.03 m and the
effective heating length of 0.08 m is tested before evaluating the egg-shaped tube. Test results are compared
with those in the literature. In Fig.6, a comparison of
the experiment results between this study and the
Zhukauskass correlation shows that the maximum deviation is 3.6%. This indicates that the results from
this study agree well with an accepted empirical correlation, thus the feasibility and reliability of the measurement system is validated.

the segregation point of the boundary layer moves backward when the axis ratio increases, and the segregation area is reduced. A pair of vortexes appears in
the wake zone for the cases of = 1, 2 and 3, with the
size of the vortex gradually becoming smaller. When
= 4 the boundary layer has hardly any segregation
and the wake zone almost disappears. This phenomenon suggests the varying of characteristics of the heat
transfer and the fluid flow, when the air flows around
the tubes with different axis ratios.
The pressure along the tube surface is expressed
through a non-dimensional quantity, C p , known as
the pressure coefficient. Since the distribution of C p
over tubes is symmetrical, only the pressure coefficient over a half surface of the tube is given in Fig.8(a).
For different tubes, the value of all C p at the forward

Fig.7 Comparison of streamlines for tubes of different axis

ratios

stagnation point is approximately equal to 1. Then it

decreases along the circumference of the tube to reach
a minimum value and then increases up to the rear
stagnation point of the tube. The pressure coefficient,
C p , is strongly influenced by the axis ratio. At the
frontal section, the pressure drop becomes sharper
with the decrease of . The minimum value of C p
indicates the change from a favorable to an adverse
pressure gradient over the tube surface. The minimum
values of C p occur at an angular position of 80o for
the circular tube. For elliptical tubes with 1 , the
minimum value of C p takes place at a position angle
smaller than 90o , and as decreases, the angle necessary to provide the minimum C p decreases. For
the case of the egg-shaped tube with = 4 , the higher
favorable pressure gradient in the front of the tube and
the lower adverse pressure gradient at the back of the
tube help the flow to inhibit the separation.
The distributions of the skin friction coefficient
C f from the forward stagnation point to the rear stagnation point of the tube, for tubes with different
are plotted in Fig.8(b). The angular position of the maximum C f shifts toward the forward stagnation point
with the decrease of . A second zero value of C f

Fig.8 Pressure coefficient and skin friction coefficient of the

tubes

3. Results and discussion

3.1 The characteristics of flow

The streamline diagrams at a Reynolds number
of 31 872 for tubes with axis ratios of = 1, 1.5, 2
and 4 are shown in Fig.7. It is clearly observed that

exists and indicates the boundary layer separation

point from the tube surface, the location moves toward the rear stagnation point of the tube with the decrease of . The maximum value of C f gradually
increases with the increase of . A similar trend was
reported by Schlichting[16] for values of including
1, 0.5, 0.25 and 0.125. Faruquee et al.[17] presented results for an elliptical tube for values of 0.75, 0.6,
0.5, 0.4 and 0.3.

82

Fig.9 Distribution of the dimensionless excess temperature for

an egg-shaped tube in the thermal boundary layer

against the Reynolds number are shown in Fig.11 for

tubes of different axis ratios. It is seen that the heat
transfer performance of the egg-shaped tubes with
= 1.5, 2 and 3 is higher than that of a circular tube
with = 1 , and the tube C with = 2 has the best
heat transfer performance. When the Reynolds number is 3 984, the average Nusselt number of an eggshaped tube with = 2 is 13.8% higher than that of
a circular tube, and 36.3% higher than that when the
Reynolds number is 47 809. For the same Reynolds
number and 2 , the convective heat transfer coefficient decreases with the increase of , while at
lower Reynolds numbers for 4 , the Nusselt number of egg-shaped tubes is lower than that of a circular
tube ( = 1) . That is because egg-shaped tubes with
larger axis ratios allow the boundary layer to develop
thicker, to generate a larger thermal resistance. Additionally, the separation point of the boundary layer
moves backward, which reduces the influence of the
vortex on the heat transfer enhancement.

Fig.10 Nusselt number distribution for different tubes

3.2 The characteristics of heat transfer

The dimensionless excess temperature variation
for a tube with = 2 , at representative angular positions in the thermal boundary layer is plotted in Fig.9.
The dimensionless temperature, , and the thermal
boundary layer thickness increase with the increase of
the position angle. The dimensionless temperature ,
is defined as follows

T T
Tw T

Fig.11 Variation of average Nusselt number against Reynolds

number

From the simulation results, empirical correlations of dimensionless heat transfer coefficient for different tubes can be obtained:

(17)

For different tubes at a Reynolds number of

31 872, the variations of the local dimensionless heat
transfer coefficient along the wall of the tube are
shown in Fig.10. It can be seen that the local heat transfer is influenced mainly by the thickness of the boundary layer of the flow, and that the heat transfer resistance increases with the development of the boundary
layer. Therefore, the heat transfer coefficients are the
largest at the forward stagnation point and then they
decrease until the separation point of the boundary
layer is reached. The separation point is shown as the
lowest point of the curves in Fig.10, and going backwards from it, the heat transfer coefficient increases
due to the occurrence of the vortex.
The variations of the average Nusselt number

Nu = 0.2574 Re0.6016 Pr 0.37 for

L
=1
D

(18a)

Nu = 0.1733Re0.6586 Pr 0.37 for

L
= 1.5
D

(18b)

Nu = 0.1490 Re0.6806 Pr 0.37 for

L
=2
D

(18c)

Nu = 0.1444 Re0.6697 Pr 0.37 for

L
=3
D

(18d)

Nu = 0.1125 Re0.6832 Pr 0.37 for

L
=4
D

(18e)

Nu = 0.1019 Re0.6862 Pr 0.37 for

L
=5
D

(18f)

83

In the above formulas the characteristic dimension De is defined as the diameter of the equivalent
circular tube for = 1 , whose perimeter is the same as
that of other egg-shaped tubes. These results are for
the Reynolds number in the range from 4 000 to
50 000.

the Reynolds number increases.

3.3 Comprehensive evaluation

A performance evaluation criterion (PEC)[18] is
adopted to evaluate the overall performance by using
the heat transfer factor, j , and the resistance coefficient, f , and it can be defined as
PEC =

j
f

(19)

Fig.13 Variation of PEC against axis ratio for different

Reynolds numbers

where
j=

2 PDe
Nu
h
=
Pr 2 / 3 , f =
U 2 L
RePr1/ 3 Uc p

Figure 12 shows the variation of the PEC against

the Reynolds number for different tubes. It is shown
that the PEC of an egg-shaped tube ( 1) is higher
than that of the circular tube ( = 1) . The PEC of the
egg-shaped tube with ratio of 2 is the best when
Re 11 952 , while the egg-shaped tube with ratio
= 3 has the best PEC when Re < 11 952 .

Fig.14 Comparison of average Nusselt number for experimental and numerical results

3.4 Reliability verification of study method

Experiment results for three different tubes with
= 2, 3 and 4 are shown in Fig.14. At a given
Reynolds number, the egg-shaped tube with = 2 has
the better performance of heat transfer than that of the
other tubes, which agrees well with the numerical results. With other tubes results included, the largest difference between the experimental results and the numerical data is 4.1% (as shown in Fig.14).

Fig.12 Variation of PEC against Reynolds number for different

tubes

The variations of the PEC versus the axis ratio

are shown in Fig.13 for different Reynolds numbers. It
is found that the optimum shape of the tube varies
with the Reynolds number. The PEC of an egg-shaped
tube with 3.5 is the highest at the Reynolds numbers of 3 984, while for 2.2 the highest PEC is
reached at the Reynolds number of 47 809. The highest point of the curve moves forward with Reynolds
number increasing. In other words, the optimum value
of the axis ratio of egg-shaped tubes decreases as

Fig.15 Comparison of the total drag coefficients for experimental and numerical results

Experimental data for the variation of the total

84

drag coefficients against the Reynolds number for

egg-shaped tubes are shown in Fig.15. A comparison
to the results from a numerical simulation is also
given. The distribution of the experimental total drag
coefficients agrees well with the numerical results.
The totals drag coefficients decrease with the increase
of the axis ratio for all tubes. Experimental drag
coefficients are only slightly smaller than those obtained by numerical simulations.
The above discussion has verified the effectiveness and correctness of the numerical method employed in this paper.
4. Conclusions
The effects of the axis ratio on the flow and
heat transfer characteristics around a new type eggshaped tube are investigated by both numerical simulations and experiments. The main conclusions are as
follows:
(1) Streamline diagrams for tubes with different
axis ratios are shown, and the wake size decreases as
increasing.
(2) Egg-shaped tubes have a high, favorable pressure gradient at the front of the tube and a low, adverse pressure gradient in the back of the tube, which
helps the flow in inhibiting an early separation. The
position angle of the minimum value of C p decreases

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

as decreasing. The maximum value of C f gradually increases with decreasing.

(3) The overall performance is evaluated by the
PEC evaluation criterion and it is found that an eggshaped tube, with = 2 has the best overall performance when Re 11 952 .
(4) To verify the effectiveness and correctness of
the numeric model utilized, an experimental study is
carried out for tubes with = 1, 2, 3 and 4. Experimental results agree well with those of the numerical
simulations.

[12]

[13]

[14]
[15]

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