Prediction of turbulent heat transfer for industrial drying processes - turbulence model assessment

This paper presents numerical investigations of turbulent heat transfer for industrial drying processes. The CFD code FLUENT was applied. The performance of various turbulence models, especially the grid sensitivity to the prediction of the Nusselt number, was tested using available experimental data of single jet impingement and the DNS data of channel flow. The sst-kw turbulence model with enhanced wall function that was found to give a reasonably accurate prediction of heat transfer with lower grid sensitivity was applied to the flow calculation in dryers. Flat sheets as well as more complicated geometries of substrates, for instance, a truck chassis were used in the simulations. The calculated heating-up behaviour on the substrates was compared with experimental results.