Modeling of flow through bundle of tubes using porous media approach.

Abstract

The computational fluid dynamics technique can be applied in different areas of engineering, including the observation of industrial equipment phenomena. In boilers recovery, the pressure drop due to bundle of tubes is an important parameter that can be analyzed through numerical simulations. In this study, simulations considering bundle of tubes were run in order to calibrate a porous media that represented these tubes. The complexity and time needed to develop meshes considering porous media are considerably lower, justifying its application. Once the media calibration is done, the resulting pressure drop at both configurations showed good agreement, proving the viability of using porous media in industrial applications.Keywords: Porous media. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Bundle of tubes.