Vibration of pipes conveying fluid is an important problem present in installations which are normally used in petroleum industries, hydropower systems, food processing industries, chemical plants and hydraulic power systems. Research is needed to further understand and be able to predict the flow behavior and investigate ways of improving their processing. The current work involves the numerical simulation of flow and heat transfer under an externally imposed mechanical vibration. CFD simulations were used to study the effects of longitudinal mechanical vibrations on the pipe flow. Vibration frequencies in the sonic range of 0–10 Hz and linear amplitudes of 0–2 mm were used. An internal flow of water with steady, laminar, incompressible, developing nature was assumed for the investigation. The vibration vector was parallel to the direction of the fluid flow. Momentum, continuity and energy equations were used as the governing equations. The partial differential equations were transformed into algebraic equations by finite difference method and upwind scheme was used to solve these equations. It was observed that induced mechanical vibration generates chaotic fluid motion resulting in radial mixing and a large enhancement in wall heat transfer. These effects increased with both vibration frequency and amplitude.Keywords: Forced convection heat transfer, tube vibration, velocity profile, enhancement, heat transfer coefficient
