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Bejan Number - Wikipedia

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14 views

Bejan Number - Wikipedia

Uploaded by

Yousaf Raxa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Bejan number

There are two different Bejan numbers (Be) used in the scientific domains
of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. Bejan numbers are named after Adrian Bejan.

Thermodynamics
In the field of thermodynamics the Bejan number is the ratio of heat transfer irreversibility to total
irreversibility due to heat transfer and fluid friction:[1][2]

where

is the entropy generation contributed by heat transfer


is the entropy generation contributed by fluid friction.

Schiubba has also achieved the relation between Bejan number Be and Brinkman number Br

Heat transfer and mass transfer


In the context of heat transfer. the Bejan number is the dimensionless pressure drop along a channel
of length :[3]

where

is the dynamic viscosity


is the thermal diffusivity

The Be number plays in forced convection the same role that the Rayleigh number plays in natural
convection.

In the context of mass transfer. the Bejan number is the dimensionless pressure drop along a channel
of length :[4]
where

is the dynamic viscosity


is the mass diffusivity

For the case of Reynolds analogy (Le = Pr = Sc = 1), it is clear that all three definitions of Bejan
number are the same.

Also, Awad and Lage:[5] obtained a modified form of the Bejan number, originally proposed by
Bhattacharjee and Grosshandler for momentum processes, by replacing the dynamic viscosity
appearing in the original proposition with the equivalent product of the fluid density and the
momentum diffusivity of the fluid. This modified form is not only more akin to the physics it
represents but it also has the advantage of being dependent on only one viscosity coefficient.
Moreover, this simple modification allows for a much simpler extension of Bejan number to other
diffusion processes, such as a heat or a species transfer process, by simply replacing the diffusivity
coefficient. Consequently, a general Bejan number representation for any process involving pressure-
drop and diffusion becomes possible. It is shown that this general representation yields analogous
results for any process satisfying the Reynolds analogy (i.e., when Pr = Sc = 1), in which case the
momentum, energy, and species concentration representations of Bejan number turn out to be the
same.

Therefore, it would be more natural and broad to define Be in general, simply as:

where

is the fluid density


is the corresponding diffusivity of the process in consideration.

In addition, Awad:[6] presented Hagen number vs. Bejan number. Although their physical meaning is
not the same because the former represents the dimensionless pressure gradient while the latter
represents the dimensionless pressure drop, it will be shown that Hagen number coincides with Bejan
number in cases where the characteristic length (l) is equal to the flow length (L).

Fluid mechanics
In the field of fluid mechanics the Bejan number is identical to the one defined in heat transfer
problems, being the dimensionless pressure drop along the fluid path length in both external flows
and internal flows:[7]

where

is the dynamic viscosity


is the momentum diffusivity (or Kinematic viscosity).
A further expression of Bejan number in the Hagen–Poiseuille flow will be introduced by Awad. This
expression is

where

is the Reynolds number


is the flow length
is the pipe diameter

The above expression shows that the Bejan number in the Hagen–Poiseuille flow is indeed a
dimensionless group, not recognized previously.

The Bhattacharjee and Grosshandler formulation of the Bejan number has large importance on fluid
dynamics in the case of the fluid flow over a horizontal plane [8] because it is directly related to fluid
dynamic drag D by the following expression of drag force

which allows expressing the drag coefficient as a function of Bejan number and the ratio between
wet area and front area :[8]

where is the Reynolds Number related to fluid path length L. This expression has been verified
experimentally in a wind tunnel.[9]

This equation represents the drag coefficient in terms of second law of thermodynamics:[10]

where is entropy generation rate and is exergy dissipation rate and ρ is density.

The above formulation allows expressing Bejan number in terms of second law of
thermodynamics:[11][12]

This expression is a fundamental step toward a representation of fluid dynamic problems in terms of
the second law of thermodynamics.[13]

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