Numerical Study of Forced Convection of Nanofluid Flow Over a Backward Facing Step With a Corrugated Bottom Wall in the Presence of Different Shaped Obstacles

In this paper, a numerical study of laminar forced convection of nanofluid flow over a backward facing step with a corrugated bottom wall in the presence of different shaped obstacles placed behind the step was performed. The bottom corrugated wall of the channel downstream of the step is isothermally heated and the other walls of the channel and obstacle surface are assumed to be adiabatic. The governing equations are solved with a finite-element method. The influences of the Reynolds number (between 10 and 200), solid volume fraction of the nanoparticle (between 0 and 0.05), and obstacle type (circular, square, and diamond shaped) on fluid flow and heat transfer are numerically investigated. It is observed that among different obstacles, the diamond shaped obstacle provides better local heat transfer enhancement characteristic in the vicinity of the step compared to the circular or square obstacle at high Reynolds number. Heat transfer enhancement of 6.66% is achieved in terms of maximum values with a diamond shaped obstacle compared to the no-obstacle case of the corrugated channel. Adding an obstacle deteriorates heat transfer in terms of average values for the backward facing step geometry with a corrugated wall. When the solid volume fraction of nanoparticle is increased, maximum and average heat transfer rate increase. Heat transfer enhancements of 7.45%, 7.42%, 6.94%, and 6.64% are obtained for the average values for circle, diamond, square, and no-obstacle cases, respectively, when solid volume fraction of 0.05 is compared to pure fluid.     

Improvement of the heat transfer quality by air cooling of three-heated obstacles in a horizontal channel using the lattice Boltzmann method

This study focuses on the cooling of three heated obstacles with different heights mounted on the bottom of the channel wall using different aspects that influence the enhancement of the heat exchange, as is known in the concept of cooling electronic devices. The lattice Boltzmann method associated with multiple relaxation times (LBM-MRT) was adopted to simulate the physical configurations of the studied system. In this context, the D2Q9 and D2Q5 models are applied to describe the fluid flow behavior and conjugate heat transfer, respectively. The evaluation of heat exchange between the cold fluid and three-heated obstacles has been accurately analyzed under the effect of several parameters such as Reynolds number, obstacle spacing, and thermal conductivity ratio. In addition, the setting of two and three fluids flow inlets were also studied. The results are presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms, and local Nusselt curves. The heat transfer increases with increasing solid-fluid thermal conductivity. It is also more pronounced for large Reynolds numbers. Moreover, the heat transfer significantly enhances for the second and third obstacles when obstacle spacing increases. The improvement of the heat transfer is performed by the implementation of several jet flows in the studied system.     

LBM simulation of forced convective channel flow containing multiple obstacles: Effects of obstacles height and position

We examine the effects of the obstacles, height, and position on the forced convective flow in a channel having three obstacles on the lower wall of the channel. All the walls of the channel and obstacles are retained at a constant temperature while the fluid with temperature more than the walls are entered into the channel. The flow governing equations, vorticity equation, and energy equation are solved numerically by using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) together with the finite difference successive over relaxation method (SOR). The effects of obstacles height, h, and distance, d, between the obstacles on the streamlines and isotherms are presented. To investigate the heat transfer rate for changing the height and position of the obstacles, local Nusselt number distribution and the mean Nusselt number distribution are also presented. It is observed that vortices, produced backward to each obstacle, increase axially with increasing the height of each obstacle. Also vortices, produced between obstacles, change its shape with decreasing the distance between obstacles. It is asserted that heat transfer rate can be increased by extending only the height of first obstacle.     

Analysis of turbulent flow and heat transfer over a double forward facing step with obstacles

A numerical study has been conducted to analyze the turbulent forced convection heat transfer for double forward facing step flow with obstacles. Obstacles have rectangular cross-sectional area with different aspect ratio that is located before each step. The numerical solutions of continuity, momentum and energy equations were solved by using a commercial code which uses finite volume techniques. The effect of turbulence was modeled by using a k–ε model. The effects of step height, obstacle aspect ratio and Reynolds number on the flow and heat transfer are investigated. The obtained results show that the rate of heat transfer is enhanced as aspect ratio of obstacle increases and this trend is affected by the step height. Also the results verified that the pressure drop decreases as obstacle aspect ratio increases.     

Perturbation of a laminar boundary layer by a synthetic jet for heat transfer enhancement

An experimental investigation of a cross-flow interaction between a synthetic jet and a flat plate laminar boundary layer is reported. The synthetic jet uses a piezo-actuator for displacing the diaphragm, thus enabling flow control in terms of the excitation amplitude and the modulation frequency. The role of these parameters on heat transfer enhancement from the flat plate is investigated. Measurements are carried out using hotwire anemometry for the flow field while the heat transfer coefficient and jet spreading are imaged respectively by liquid crystal thermography and the laser schlieren technique.Results show that the average heat transfer coefficient increases with excitation amplitude and a maximum of 44% enhancement is observed. Amplitude modulation at low frequencies also increases the heat transfer coefficient. Overall, the study indicates the efficacy of a synthetic jet actuator for heat transfer enhancement with excitation amplitude and modulation frequency as control parameters.Visualization using liquid crystal thermography shows dual streaks over the flat surface indicating the footprint of vortical structures from the synthetic jet inside the laminar boundary layer. The role played by amplitude modulation in enhancing heat transfer is clearly demonstrated by schlieren visualization and further confirmed by hotwire measurements. The synthetic jet also increases the average turbulence content inside the boundary layer. Power spectra show an overall increase in the amplitude of the low frequency fluctuations arising from synthetic jet actuation. The time-averaged velocity profile behind the synthetic jet shows similarity to the wake profile behind a surface-mounted obstacle. Analogous to physical obstacles such as ribs, these results show that a synthetic jet can also be used as a device for heat transfer enhancement in a boundary layer.     

A review on adsorption refrigeration technology and adsorption deterioration in physical adsorption systems

As one kind of environmentally friendly refrigeration, the adsorption refrigeration has attracted many attentions in resent decades. This paper introduces the researches of adsorption refrigeration systems with the commonly used working pairs, advanced adsorption cycles, heat and mass transfer enhancement and attempts of adsorption refrigeration applications. Poor heat and mass transfer problem is a bottleneck to prevent the improvements of the adsorption refrigeration technique. Two ways to enhance the heat and mass transfer are discussed in this paper. The adsorption deterioration of adsorbent, another obstacle to physical adsorption refrigeration applications, is also pointed out. And the possible reasons and the possible methods are analyzed.     

Effect of inserting obstacles in flow field on a membrane humidifier performance for PEMFC application: A CFD model

In this study, the numerical models are developed to investigate the influence of obstacle shape and number on performance of a planar porous membrane humidifier for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) application. Dew point of dry side outlet and water transfer rate are applied as evaluation parameters of the performance regardless of pressure drop. A dimensionless number named performance evaluation criteria (PEC) is calculated for all models. The higher value of PEC indicates the higher heat transfer rate with lower pressure drop. In humidifier with one rectangular obstacle compared with the simple humidifier, water transfer rate increases by 7.28%. The highest values of water transfer rate, dew point and PEC, also the greatest values of pressure drop are in humidifiers with rectangular, triangular and circular obstacles, in that order. When there is restriction in securing pumping power in fuel cell system, circular obstacle is the best choice. With considering the pressure drop, using one obstacle does not offer any advantage because the PEC is less than one (0.898). At least two obstacles are needed to have PEC number greater than one, consequently an efficient performance. An increment in number of obstacles causes an increment in water transfer rate, dew point and PEC.     

Experimental study on condensation heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop penalty factors in four microfin tubes

Heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of four microfin tubes were experimentally investigated for condensation of refrigerants R134a, R22, and R410A in four different test sections. The microfin tubes examined during this study consisted of 8.92, 6.46, 5.1, and 4 mm maximum inside diameter. The effect of mass flux, vapor quality, and refrigerants on condensation was investigated in terms of the heat transfer enhancement factor and the pressure drop penalty factor. The pressure drop penalty factor and the heat transfer enhancement factor showed a similar tendency for each tube at given vapor quality and mass flux. Based on the experimental data and the heat-momentum analogy, correlations for the condensation heat transfer coefficients in an annular flow regime and the frictional pressure drops are proposed.     

Enhancing heat transfer in the core flow by using porous medium insert in a tube

According to the concept of heat transfer enhancement in the core flow, porous media with a slightly smaller diameter to a tube are developed and inserted in the core of the tube under the constant and uniform heat flux condition. The flow resistance and heat transfer characteristics of the air flow for laminar to fully turbulent ranges of Reynolds numbers are investigated experimentally and numerically. There are three different porous media used in the experiments with porosity of 0.951, 0.966 and 0.975, respectively. The effect of porous radius ratio on the heat transfer performance is studied in numerical simulation. Both numerical and experimental results show that the convective heat transfer is considerably enhanced by the porous inserts of an approximate diameter with the tube and the corresponding flow resistance increases in a reasonable extent especially in laminar flow. It shows that the core flow enhancement is an efficacious method for enhancing heat transfer.     

低压条件下紧凑式顺排管束满液型蒸发换热器的强化换热特性研究

提出了一种新型紧凑式顺排光滑管束组成的满液式蒸发换热器。在低压条件下对水平光滑顺排管束的小空间内沸腾强化换热特性进行了实验研究,确认了管距、管位置和运行压力对强化换热性能的影响。实验表明存在一个能得到最大强化换热效果的最佳管距,这一最佳管距接近沸腾气泡的脱离直径。压力对强化换热效果也有重要影响:随着压力降低,强化换热效果也逐步减弱。实验结果对高效节能型蒸发换热器设计提供了设计基础。     

Study on boiling heat transfer in liquid saturated particle bed and fluidized bed

An investigation on the effects of solid particles on boiling heat transfer enhancement is performed. The range of particle diameter is from millimeter to nanometer. The experimental results show that boiling heat transfer can be enhanced greatly by adding the solid particle into the liquid whether in fixed particle bed or in fluidized particle bed. The boiling enhancement is closely related to the particle size, the initial bed depth and the heat flux applied. The experiments show that boiling characteristics are greatly changed when a particle layer is put on the heated surface. The major effects of fixed particle bed on nucleate pool boiling heat transfer are the nucleation, bubble moving and thermal conductivity effect. A boiling heat transfer correlation is obtained to predict the boiling heat transfer coefficients in a liquid saturated porous bed. A volumetric convection mechanism of boiling heat transfer enhancement by fluidized particles is proposed. The calculated results from the model suggested in this paper agree reasonably with the experimental values.     

Experimental investigation of titanium nanofluids on the heat pipe thermal efficiency

The enhancement heat transfer of the heat transfer devices can be done by changing the fluid transport properties and flow features of working fluids. In the present study, therefore, the enhancement of heat pipe thermal efficiency with nanofluids is presented. The heat pipe is fabricated from the straight copper tube with the outer diameter and length of 15, 600 mm, respectively. The heat pipe with the de-ionic water, alcohol, and nanofluids (alcohol and nanoparticles) are tested. The titanium nanoparticles with diameter of 21 nm are used in the present study which the mixtures of alcohol and nanoparticles are prepared using an ultrasonic homogenizer. Effects of %charge amount of working fluid, heat pipe tilt angle and %nanoparticles volume concentrations on the thermal efficiency of heat pipe are considered. The nanoparticles have a significant effect on the enhancement of thermal efficiency of heat pipe. The thermal efficiency of heat pipe with the nanofluids is compared with that the based fluid.     

A numerical study to investigate the effect of turbulators on thermal flow and heat performance of a 3D pipe

To reduce the heat exchanger's costs in a highly competitive industry, thermal performance enhancement of the heat exchangers has successfully gained attention in the last few decades. Among different engineering approaches, the application of the enhanced pipes provides a key solution to improve heat performance. In this paper, the investigation develops a numerical study based on the commercially available computational fluid dynamics codes on the turbulent flow in three-dimensional tubular pipes. Various concavity (dimple) diameters with corrugation and twisted tape configurations are investigated. The study has shown that perforated geometrical parameters lead to a high fluid mixing and flow perturbation between the pipe core region and the walls, hence better thermal efficiency. Moreover, a model of concavity (dimple) with a 4 mm diameter allows the highest heat transfer enhancement among other designs. In addition, the study shows that due to the disturbance between the pipe core region and the pipe wall, the transverse vortices and swirl flow generated are forceful, which leads to better heat transfer enhancement compared with the conventional (smooth) pipes. As the Reynolds number (Re) rises, the mixing flow, secondary, and separation flow extend to become higher than the values in a smooth pipe, allowing a higher value of performance evaluation factor to be achieved for a dimple diameter of 1mm at the low Re values. This study, therefore, shows the promising potential of the enhanced pipes in the heat transfer enhancement of heat exchangers that is crucial in industrial applications to save more energy.     

Study on transport phenomena for flow film condensation in vertical mini-tube with interfacial waves

The Kelvin-Helmholtz instability of phase-change interface during flow film condensation in vertical mini-diameter tube was studied here by means of energy analysis. According to the interfacial boundary conditions, the film thinning effect and the phase-change area enlarging effect by interfacial waves on heat transfer enhancement were analyzed for flow condensation in tubes with different diameter. It is indicated that, in mini-diameter tube, more obvious heat transfer enhancement due to interfacial waves can be expected than that in normal-sized tube, and the interfacial waves enhance the heat transfer mainly by film thinning effect.     

Heat transfer enhancement in self-sustained oscillatory flow in a grooved channel with oblique plates

The aim of this work is to investigate the conjugate heat transfer in periodic mounted obstacles channel with oblique plates as vortex generators installed at the rear obstacles on the opposite wall. Special attention will be paid to the analysis of flow evolution and heat transfer enhancement in the intermediate and low Reynolds number range without recourse to turbulent flow. Various physical arrangements are considered as plate length, tilt angle and Reynolds number in order to investigate their influence on the thermal and flow characteristics in the steady state as well as in the self-sustained oscillatory flow.     

Water pool boiling heat transfer enhancement for modified surface tubes

This paper deals with the method of decreasing the size of heat exchanger surfaces by increasing the heat transfer coefficients and the importance of heat transfer enhancement for vaporization. We report an experimental study on surfaces modified by passive methods applied to heat transfer surfaces mechanically processed, covered with sleeves made by metallic tissues or covered with metallic porous layers performed using welding procedures. Experiments are made to investigate the heat transfer coefficient on copper tubes with a 22 mm external diameter using heat from inner source to outer vaporizing liquid. There are developed specific heat transfer correlations for each group of enhanced surfaces. The experimental data and new proposed correlations are compared with well known correlations. The results are in best agreement with the Cornwell–Houston correlation.     

Obstacle's effects and their location inside the square cavity on the thermal performance of Cu–Al2O3/H2O hybrid nanofluid

The current study focuses on the effect of obstacles and their positioning within the square cavity (L = H) on heat exchange. This work considers heating the cavity's bottom wall to a steady, high temperature. The top wall of the cavity is adiabatic, while the two vertical side walls are cooled. Four cases are explored under these conditions: the first case is a square-shaped cavity holding a square-shaped obstacle h = l = 0,15 L, while the other three cases, respectively, each include two, three, and four square obstacles. The cavity was filled with Cu–Al₂O₃/H₂O hybrid nanofluid with a volume fraction φ = 0.03. Numerical results for laminar and stationary flow regimes with Rayleigh numbers 10⁴ ≤ Ra ≤ 10⁶. The finite volume approach solves the governing equations numerically. The findings show that the number of square obstacles within the square-shaped cavity significantly impacts heat exchange and hybrid nanofluid flow. The second example, with two square obstacles, improves heat exchange more than other cases with one to four barriers. In the second example, the obstacle location at the plane Y = 0.25H is suitable and helps boost heat transmission of the hybrid nanofluid. The ideal obstacle position in the fourth scenario, which has four square barriers, is at the plane Y = 0.75H.     

Heat Transfer Measurements inside Narrow Channels with Ribs and Trenches

Detailed heat transfer coefficient distributions are obtained for high aspect ratio (width/height = 12.5) duct with rib and trench enhancement features oriented normal to the coolant flow direction. A transient thermochromic liquid crystal technique has been used to experimentally measure heat transfer coefficients from which Nusselt numbers are calculated on the duct surface featuring heat transfer enhancement features. Reynolds number (calculated based on duct hydraulic diameter) ranging from 7100 to 22400 were experimentally investigated. Detailed measurements of heat transfer provided insight into the role of protruding ribs and trenches on the fluid dynamics in the duct. Experimentally obtained Nusselt numbers are normalized by Dittus-Boelter correlation for developed turbulent flow in circular duct. The triangular trenches provide heat transfer enhancement ratios up to 1.9 for low Reynolds numbers. The in-line rib configuration shows similar levels to the trench whereas staggered rib configuration provides heat transfer enhancement ratios up to 2.2 for a low Reynolds number of 7100.     

Effects of flow obstacles on the critical heat flux in a vertical tube cooled with upward flow of R-134a

This paper presents a summary of a 4-year investigation into the effect of flow obstacles on critical heat flux (CHF). The investigation was performed using a vertical 6.92 mm tube, cooled with R-134a. The tests covered a pressure range from 0.96 to 2.39 MPa, a mass flux range from 500 to 3000 kg m⁻² s⁻¹, and an outlet (critical) quality range from −0.05 to +0.95. The following flow obstacle effects on CHF were investigated: (a) the degree of flow blockage (blockage ratios of 12%, 24% and 37%); (b) the flow obstruction shape (cylinder, bar, plate, segment- and sector-shaped obstacles, rings, and twisted plate); (c) the leading and trailing edge shape (abrupt, knife shape, rounded edges); (d) the axial distance separating the flow obstacles, and the distance between the last obstacle and the downstream end of the heated length; (e) the number of obstacles in series; and (f) the location of obstacles within a cross-section.The test results showed that the presence of flow obstacles generally increases the CHF downstream of the obstacle, although the magnitude of the CHF increase depends on the shape and size of the flow obstacles, the number of obstacles per axial plane, the shape of the leading edge, and their circumferential location, as well as the flow conditions (critical quality, mass flux and pressure).An improved method for predicting the CHF increase due to the presence of flow obstacles was developed. This semi-analytical method correctly represents the observed parametric and asymptotic trends, including the impact of flow and quality. This method is considered to be a significant improvement over the existing CHF enhancement prediction methods.     

Heat transfer effects of chimney height,diameter, and Prandtl number

This study investigates the heat transfer enhancement of a chimney system, both experimentally and numerically, by varying the height and diameter of the chimney, and the Prandtl number of the working fluid. Mass transfer experiments are carried out using a sulfuric acid and copper sulfate electroplating system based on analogy concepts. Numerical simulations are executed using FLUENT 6.3. Natural convection experiments and numerical calculations performed without a chimney showed good agreement with the Le Fevre correlation for natural convection on a vertical plate. As the chimney height is increased, the heat transfer rates are enhanced for all Prandtl numbers, but the enhancement rates decrease as the Prandtl number increases. An optimal chimney diameter is found that maximizes the heat transfer. An increase in heat input or heated length results in an additional enhancement of the heat transfer, increasing the buoyancy force. Numerical results provide visualizations of the temperature and velocity fields in the chimneys, showing their interactions and flow regimes.