Publication date: 13 April 2026
Source: Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 935
Author(s): Abdullatif A. Gari
Heat losses from heating air ducts underground are used in many applications such as heating and air conditioning in cold weather. Researchers worked on heat losses to understand different ways to reduce heat losses to the environment. This project studies a 3-dimensional model of heating rectangular duct in cold surroundings. The model was done numerically. The numerical grid was tested to reach a reasonable approximation and a comparison with correlations from literature showed good agreement. Moreover, parametric study was carried out to study the effect of different parameters on heat losses. These parameters were Inlet velocity Vo, Inlet temperature To, outer heat transfer coefficient ho, and surrounding temperature T∞. Results showed that higher inlet velocity, inlet temperature, and outer heat transfer coefficient increases the total heat loss to the surroundings while higher surrounding temperature decreases the total heat loss to the surroundings.
[1] P. Coelho, J. C. F. Pereira, Calculation procedure for 3-D laminar flows in complex geometrics using a nonstaggered nonorthogonal grid system, Applied Mathematical Modeling. 17:11 (1993) 562-576.
[2] P. Talukdar, C. R. Iskra, and C. J. Simonson, Combined heat and mass transfer for laminar flow of moist air in a 3D rectangular duct: CFD simulation and validation with experimental data, Int. J. of Heat and Mass Transfer. 51:11-12 (2008) 3091-3102.
[3] V. Petkov, V. D. Zimparov, and A. E. Bergles, Performance evaluation of ducts with non-circular shapes: Laminar fully developed flow and constant wall temperature, Int. J. of Thermal Sciences. 79:May (2014) 220-228.
[4] A. Benslimane, K. Bekkour, P. Francois, and H. Bechir, Laminar and turbulent pipe flow of bentonite suspensions, J. of Petroleum Science, and engineering. 139:March (2016) 85-93.
[5] D. Xing, C. Yan, C. Wang, and L. Sun, A theoretical analysis about the effect of aspect ratio on single-phase laminar flow in rectangular ducts, Progress in nuclear energy. 65:May (2013) 1-7.
[6] R. J. Yadav, S. K. Kore, V. N. Raibhole, and P. S. Joshi, Development of Correlations for Friction Factor and Heat Transfer Coefficient for Square and Hex Duct with Twisted Tape Insert in Laminar Flow, Int. Conf. on Computational Heat and Mass Transfer. 127 (2015) 250-257.
[7] B. Weigand and M. Abdelmoula, Axial heat conduction effects in the entrance region of laminar duct flows: Correlations for the local Nusselt number, Int. Communication in Heat and Mass Transfer. 51:Feb (2014) 45-50.
[8] A. H. Altun, S. Bilir, and A. Ates, Transient conjugated heat transfer in thermally developing laminar flow in thick-walled pipes and mini-pipes with time periodically varying wall temperature boundary condition, Int. J. of Heat and Mass Transfer. 92:Jan. (2016) 643-657.
[9] N. Zhao, J. Yang, H. Li, Z. Zhang, and S. Li, Numerical investigations of laminar heat transfer and flow performance of Al2O3–water nanofluids in a flat tube, Int. J. of Heat and Mass Transfer. 92:Jan. (2016) 268-282.
[10] Hassan NN, Leman AM, Zafarullah MA, Salleh Z, Rahman KA, Madon RH, Muzarpar S, Zamree AS. Characterization of flow rate and heat loss in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) duct system for office building. InAIP Conference Proceedings 2021 May 3 (Vol. 2339, No. 1, p.020173). AIP Publishing LLC.
DOI: 10.1063/5.0044697
[11] Noor MR, Fauzi NS, Masrom SN, Malek MA, Mustapha MF, Yasin AB. Graphing behaviour of heat transfer in terms of Nusselt and Reynolds. Journal of Computing Research and Innovation. 2021 Apr 1;6(2):43-54.
[12] Sahar AM, Ishak MS, Wissink J, Mahmoud MM, Karayiannis TG. Flow Distribution in Parallel Rectangular Multi Microchannels in Single Phase, CFD Letters International Journal, 2023, 15, Issue 1 (2023) 67-75.
[13] Sahar AM. Computational fluid dynamic of single and two-phase flow in microchannels (Doctoral dissertation, Brunel University London), 2021.
[14] Faiz A. H. and Firdaus M. Building services and maintenance for air conditioner., 2022.
[15] F. P. Incropera, D. P. Dewitt, T. L. Bergman, and A. S. Lavine, Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Trasfer, sixth edition, J. Wiley and Sons, New York, 2007.