Heat transfer and entropy analysis for a transparent gas flowing in a tube

Heat transfer by forced convection and radiation in tubes is very important for high-temperature heat exchangers, which find wide applications in power plants. In addition, the entropy analysis gives insight into the qualitative measure of the heat transfer processes. Consequently, in the present study, forced convection and radiation heat transfer in flow through a tube is considered. The wall and fluid sides temperature rise are predicted for different tube lengths. The entropy analysis is carried out and the influence of tube length and heat transfer coefficient on the volumetric entropy generation are examined. It is found that the wall temperature and the volumetric entropy generation increases as the tube length increases. The point of maximum volumetric entropy generation moves close to the tube inlet as the tube length increases. In addition, the maximum volumetric entropy generation becomes independent of tube length for high heat transfer coefficients.