Thermal Field Around a Circular Cylinder with Periodic Vortex Shedding

A numerical study is carried out to investigate the laminar forced convection heat transfer from a circular cylinder. The fluid is assumed to be incompressible, the Reynolds number ranged from 0.1 to 1000, and the Prandtl number was equal to 0.7. The range of study includes heat transfer in creeping flow (Re40). The equations were discretized by a control-volume-based finite difference technique, and they were solved by the SIMPLE algorithm. The problem formulation is such that it can handle both steady and steady periodic situations. The paper presents the isotherms for the cylinder with isothermal wall and constant wall heat flux. The results indicate that the periodic nature of eddies causes an oscillatory behavior in the heat transfer coefficients. The oscillations are intensified as the Reynolds number is increased.