Comparative Study of Convective Heat Transfer Performance of Steam and Air Flow in Rib Roughened Channels

A comparative experimental study of heat transfer characteristics of steam and air flow in rectangular channels roughened with parallel ribs was conducted by using an infrared camera. Effects of Reynolds numbers and rib angles on the steam and air convective heat transfer have been obtained and compared with each other for the Reynolds number from about 4,000 to 15,000. For all the ribbed channels the rib pitch to height ratio(p/e) is 10, and the rib height to the channel hydraulic diameter ratio is 0.078, while the rib angles are varied from 90° to 45°.Based on experimental results, it can be found that, even though the heat transfer distributions of steam and air flow in the ribbed channels are similar to each other, the steam flow can obtain higher convective heat transfer enhancement capability, and the heat transfer enhancement of both the steam and air becomes greater with the rib angle deceasing from 90° to 45°. At Reynolds number of about 12,000, the area-averaged Nusselt numbers of the steam flow is about 13.9%, 14.2%, 19.9% and 23.9% higher than those of the air flow for the rib angles of 90°,75°, 60° and 45° respectively. With the experimental results the correlations for Nusselt number in terms of Reynolds number and rib angle for the steam and air flow in the ribbed channels were developed respectively.     

Second law analysis of an array of vertical plate-finned heat sink undergoing mixed convection

Second law analysis of an array of vertical plate-finned heat sink undergoing mixed convective heat transfer is investigated. The fluid flow and temperature fields are evaluated numerically solving the mass, momentum and energy conservation equations. The effects of Grashof number, inlet velocity, clearances, and fin spacing on entropy generation, Nusselt number, pumping power ratio and by-pass factor are presented. Total dimensionless entropy generation continuously decreases with clearances for all fin spacing, while Nusselt number shows an optimum value, especially at higher inlet velocities. There exists an optimum range of fin spacing at which Nusselt number is maximum for all Grashof numbers. The pumping power ratio shows significantly higher value for smaller fin spacing and at optimum fin spacing it decreases approximately by an order of magnitude. At optimum clearance, flow by-pass is significantly low.     

Effects of Different Fin Spacings on the Nusselt Number and Reynolds Number in Perforated Finned Heat Exchangers

In this study, the effect of holes placed on perforated finned heat exchangers on convective heat transfer was experimentally investigated. Six-millimeter-diameter holes were opened on each circular fin on a heating tube in order to increase convective heat transfer. These holes were placed on the circular fins in such a way as to follow each other at the same chosen angle. The holes created turbulence in a region near the heating tube surface on the bottom of the fin. Experiments were then performed to analyze the effect of this turbulence on heat transfer and pressure drop. These experiments were carried out at five different fin spacings at the angular locations of 30° and 60° in order to determine the optimum fin spacing. Moreover, further experiments were carried out for counterflow and parallel-flow arrangements to determine the effects of the flow directions of the heating fluid and heated fluid. Results show an increase in Nusselt number with increasing modified Reynolds number. In addition, when different fin spacing to heating tube external diameter ratios were examined, at a ratio of 0.414 and angular locations of 30° and 60°, 11% and 8.6% increase in heat transfer were obtained, respectively, for parallel-flow arrangement compared to counterflow. For parallel flow, pressure drop values were 3.5% and 3.8% lower at 30° and 60°, respectively.     

CFD Analysis of Steady Laminar Natural Convection Heat Transfer from a Pin Finned Isothermal Vertical Plate

Heat transfer behavior with both the conductive and nonconductive fins have been analyzed by examining variations of the local and average Nusselt numbers in two‐dimensional flow. The main objective of this study is to quantify and compare the natural convection heat transfer enhancement of fin array with different fin aspect ratio and at different angles of inclination. It is found that significant heat transfer augmentation is obtained for both conductive and nonconductive fins. For conductive fins 20% higher augmentation factor is obtained when the fin aspect ratio is 6, angle of inclination is 60° and the pitch‐to‐length ratio is 0.2. For nonconductive fins, 10% higher augmentation factor is obtained when fin aspect ratio is 8, angle of inclination is 45° and pitch‐to‐length ratio at 0.5. A general correlation has been developed to predict the average Nusselt number and heat transfer augmentation factor for conductive and nonconductive fin arrays as a function of different fin configurations.     

Effect of Inclination on Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in a Finned Enclosure Filled with a Dielectric Liquid

The problem of two-dimensional natural convection flow of a dielectric fluid in a square inclined enclosure with a fin placed on the hot wall is investigated numerically. The fin thickness and length are 1/10 and 1/2 of the enclosure side, respectively. The Rayleigh number is varied from 10³ to 5 × 10⁵ and the solid to fluid thermal conductivity ratio is fixed at 10³. The enclosure tilt or inclination angle is varied from 0° to 90°. The streamlines and isotherms within the enclosure are produced and the heat transfer is calculated. It is found that for 2.5 × 10⁴ ≤ Ra ≤ 2.5 × 10⁵, the average Nusselt number is maximum when γ = 0° and minimum when γ = 90°. For Ra = 5 × 10⁵, the values of enclosure tilt angle for which the average Nusselt number is maximum or minimum are completely different due to the transition to unsteady state. In this case, the maximum heat transfer is obtained for γ = 60°, while the minimum heat transfer is predicted for γ = 0°. Monomial correlations relating the average Nusselt number with the different values of the Rayleigh number from 10⁴ to 10⁵ are determined for two different angles, γ = 0° and γ = 90°.     

An experimental investigation of heat transfer characteristics for steam cooling in a rectangular channel with parallel ribs

An experimental study of heat transfer characteristics in superheated steam cooled rectangular channels with parallel ribs was conducted.The distribution of the heat transfer coefficient on the rib-roughed channel was measured by IR camera.The blockage ratio(e/Dh) of the tested channel is 0.078 and the aspect ratio(W/H) is fixed at3.0.Influences of the rib pitch-to-height ratio(P/e) and the rib angle on heat transfer for steam cooling were investigated.In this paper,the Reynolds number(Re) for steam ranges from 3070 to 14800,the rib pitch-to-height ratios were 8,10 and 12,and rib angles were 90°,75°,60°,and 45°.Based on results above,we have concluded that:In case of channels with 90° tranverse ribs,for larger rib pitch models(the rib pitch-to-height ratio=10 and12),areas with low heat transfer coefficient in front of rib is larger and its minimum is lower,while the position of the region with high heat transfer coefficient nearly remains the same,but its maximun of heat transfer coefficient becomes higher.In case of channels with inclined ribs,heat transfer coefficients on the surface decrease along the direction of each rib and show an apparent nonuniformity,consequently the regions with low Nusselt number values closely following each rib expand along the aforementioned direction and that of relative high Nusselt number values vary inversely.For a square channel with 90° ribs at Re= 14800,wider spacing rib configurations(the rib pitch-to-height ratio=10 and 12) give an area-averaged heat transfer on the rib-roughened surface about8.4%and 11.4%more than P/e=8 model,respectively;for inclined parallel ribs with different rib angles at Re=14800,the area-averaged heat transfer coefficients of 75°,60° and 45° ribbed surfaces increase by 20.1%,42.0%and 44.4%in comparison with 90° rib angle model.45° angle rib-roughened channel leads to a maximal augmentation of the area-averaged heat transfer coefficient in all research objects in this paper.     

Detailed parametric analyses of heat transfer in CPC solar energy collectors

A detailed parametric analysis of heat transfer in compound parabolic concentrating solar energy collectors has been performed, using a unified model for their optical and thermophysical behaviour. The effects of angular inclination and collector acceptance angles on free convection within the cavity are presented. The circumferential variation of local Nusselt number about the absorber is determined. A convective heat transfer correlation is obtained for the average Nusselt number with respect to Grashof number that takes into account acceptance angle and angular inclination. The developed correlation is extended to truncated compound parabolic concentrators.     

Free Convective Flow of Electrically Conducting and Viscous Immiscible Fluid Flow in a Vertical Channel in the Presence of First‐Order Chemical Reaction

In this paper, the effects of chemical reaction on free convective flow of electrically conducting and viscous incompressible immiscible fluids are analyzed. The coupled nonlinear equations governing the heat and mass transfer are solved analytically and numerically with appropriate boundary conditions for each fluid and the solutions have been matched at the interface. The analytical solutions are solved by using regular perturbation method valid for small values of perturbation parameter and numerically by using finite difference method. The numerical results for various values of thermal Grashof number, mass Grashof number, Hartman number, viscosity ratio, width ratio, conductivity ratio, and chemical reaction parameter have been presented graphically in the presence and in the absence of electric field load parameter. In addition, the closed form expression for volumetric flow rate, Nusselt number, species concentration, and total heat rate added to the flow is also analyzed. The solutions obtained by finite difference method and perturbation method agree very well to the order of 10^?4 for small values of perturbation parameter.     

Numerical analysis of Grashof number,Reynolds number and inclination effects on mixed convection heat transfer in rectangular channels

Mixed convection heat transfer in rectangular channels has been investigated computationally under various operating conditions. The lower surface of the channel is subjected to a uniform heat flux, sidewalls are insulated and adiabatic, and the upper surface is exposed to the surrounding fluid. Solutions were obtained for Pr=0.7, inclination angles 0° ≤ θ ≤ 90°, Reynolds numbers 50 ≤ Re ≤ 1000, and modified Grashof numbers Gr = 7.0×10⁵ to 4.0×10⁶. The three-dimensional elliptic governing equations were solved using a finite volume based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. From a parametric study, local Nusselt number distributions were obtained and effects of channel inclination, surface heat flux and Reynolds number on the onset of instability were investigated. Results obtained from the simulations are compared with the literature and a parallel conducted experimental study, from which a good agreement was observed. The onset of instability was found to move upstream for increasing Grashof number. On the other hand, onset of instability was delayed for increasing Reynolds number and increasing inclination angle.     

The effects of geometrical parameters of a corrugated channel with in out-of-phase arrangement

Numerical investigations of forced turbulent convective flow and heat transfer in a corrugated channel of plate heat exchanger are carried out. The continuity, momentum and energy equations were solved by means of a finite volume method (FVM). The top and bottom walls of the corrugated channel are heated at constant heat flux boundary conditions. The effects of geometrical parameters of corrugated tilt angles, channel heights and wavy heights using water as a working fluid on the thermal and flow fields as well as on the performance of evaluation criterion are studied. The corrugated channel with three different corrugated tilt angles of 20°, 40° and 60° with different channel heights of 12.5, 15 and 17.5 mm and different wavy heights of 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 mm are tested. This investigation covers Reynolds number and heat flux in the range of 8000–20,000 and 0.4–6 kW/m², respectively. The numerical results indicate that the wavy angle of 60° and wavy height of 2.5 mm with channel height of 17.5 mm are the optimum parameters and they have a significant effect on the heat transfer enhancement. It is found that using wavy channel is a suitable method to increase the thermal performance and getting higher compactness of the heat exchanger.     

Numerical thermal‐hydraulic performance investigations in turbulent curved channel flow with horseshoe baffles

A numerical work is performed to investigate the thermal‐hydraulic performance in a curved channel of a journal bearing equipped with oblique horseshoe baffles. Water, a working fluid, is passed through the curved channel at a constant temperature condition of 358 K. The effects of different parameters of baffles, that is, attack angle (α = 45°, 60°, and 90°) and the number of baffles (NB = 9 and 13 baffles), are examined. Influences of design parameters on heat transfer and friction performances are studied and displayed in terms of the Nusselt number, the friction factor, the Nusselt number enhancement ratio, and the thermal‐hydraulic performance factor (THPF). The numerical simulations present the flow structures of the tested channel in terms of velocity, isotherms, turbulent kinetic energy, and vorticity contours. The numerical results reveal that the adopted geometry of the curved channel with baffles yields a significant enhancement of heat transfer rate over the plain channel (without baffles), which is approximately 2.5 to 3.8 times. Also, the results show that the best condition to achieve maximum heat transfer is at angle α = 90°, NB = 13, and Re = 5000, compared with other conditions. Furthermore, the maximum THPF of the curved channel using baffles is 4.4 at the same condition. The results confirmed that the geometry of the baffles inside the curved channel has a remarkable impact on heat transfer improvement, accompanied by a reasonable increase in friction losses.     

CFD analysis on heat transfer through different extended surfaces

The present study includes computational fluid dynamics analysis and comparison of heat enhancement through different extended surfaces, especially in rectangular and square conductive and nonconductive fins. Computational and numerical analysis of heat transfer from a rectangular extended surface and a pin-finned plate studied to calculate the average Nusselt number in parallel, vertical direction placed along the sidewall. The total rise of the mean Nusselt number is noticed around 36% in pin-finned plate with respect to a plain plate. This is examined with optimal fin spacing of S_v with L ratio equals to 0.2 and S_h with W ratio equals to 0.25, height of extended surfaces 24 mm with 45° angle of inclination. The mean Nusselt number reduces with a rise in the angle of inclination and also increases with a rise in aspect ratio. The present study reveals that inline and staggered arrangements do not yield appreciably different results. The maximum average Nusselt number difference between conductive and nonconductive fins is around 5% for S_h per W ratio 0.33 and S_v per L ratio 0.2 at an angle of inclination 45°, fin height of 6 mm (height to thickness ratio 2).     

Numerical study of local heat transfer coefficient and fin efficiency of wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers

Three-dimensional numerical simulations were performed for laminar flow of wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers by using body-fitted coordinates (BFC) method with fin efficiency effect accounted. The prediction results of average Nusselt number, friction factor and fin efficiency were compared with the related experimental correlations [R.C. Xin, H.Z. Li, H.J. Kang, W. Li, W.Q. Tao, An experimental investigation on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of triangular wavy fin-and-tube heat exchanger surfaces, J. Xi'an Jiaotong Univ. 28 (2) (1994) 77–83] and Schmidt approximation [T.E. Schmidt, Heat transfer calculations for extended surfaces, Refrigerating Engineering (April 1949) 351–357]. For Reynolds numbers based on the tube outside diameter ranging from 500 to 4000, the mean deviation is 3.3% for Nusselt number, 1.9% for friction factor and 3.6% for fin efficiency. The distributions of local Nusselt number and fin efficiency on fin surface were studied at wavy angle equal to 0° (plain plate fin), 10° and 20° respectively. The local Nusselt number decreases along the air flow direction, but fin efficiency increases in general. The wavy angle can greatly affect the distributions of local Nusselt number and fin efficiency, and make the distributions present fluctuation along the flow direction. The result also shows that the fin efficiency at the inlet region of wavy fin is larger than that of plain plate fin at the same region. With the increase of Reynolds number, the effects of wavy angle on the distributions of local Nusselt number and fin efficiency are more and more significant.     

Heat transfer enhancement by using a rectangular wing vortex generator on the triangular shaped fins of a plate‐fin heat exchanger

The present numerical analysis pertains to the heat transfer enhancement in a plate‐fin heat exchanger employing triangular shaped fins with a rectangular wing vortex generator on its slant surfaces. The study has been carried out for three different angles of attack of the wing, i.e., 15°, 20° and 26°. The aspect ratio of the wing is not varied with its angle of attack. The flow considered herein is laminar, incompressible, and viscous with the Reynolds number not exceeding 200. The pressure and the velocity components are obtained by solving the continuity and the Navier– Stokes equations by the Marker and Cell method. The present analysis reveals that the use of a rectangular wing vortex generator at an attack angle of 26° results in about a 35% increase in the combined spanwise average Nusselt number as compared to the plate‐triangular fin heat exchanger without any vortex generator. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20285     

The influence of internal fins on mixed convection inside horizontal tubes

Results of a numerical analysis of fully developed, laminar, mixed convection in horizontal tubes with two vertically oriented fins are presented. Fins are found to suppress the free convective currents and thus the enhancements in Nusselt number and friction factor decrease as the fin height increases. For all values of Grashof number and relative fin height considered, the percentage rise in Nusselt no. due to free convection exceeded the percentage increase in friction factor.     

Forced Convective Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Air Flowing in a Rectangle Duct with Cross-Ribs on the Opposite Walls

Experiments were conducted to investigate the forced convective heat transfer and flow friction of turbulent airflow in a rectangular duct with cross-ribs attached at the two principal walls in the Reynolds number range from 5000 to 40000. The effect of the rib cross angle (45° 60° 75° and the height (4 mm, 5 mm) of the cross-ribs on the forced convection and flow friction were tested. Non-dimensional correlations for the duct average Nusselt number and friction factor of cross-ribs duct were developed from the test data. Experiments were also conducted for the corresponding parallel ribs to compare their relative performance. The experimental results show that both of the convective heat transfer coefficient and friction factor were increased with cross-ribs, with 45°cross-ribs being the best. Compared with parallel ribs normal to the flow direction under identical flow rate and identical pumping power constraints, the cross-ribs can enhance heat transfer in the lower Reynolds number region, while i     

Enhancement of Heat Transfer for Plate Fin Heat Exchangers Considering the Effects of Fin Arrangements

In the present study, the potential of rectangular fins with different fin types of inner zigzag-flat-outer zigzag (B-type) and outer zigzag-flat-outer zigzag (C-type) and with different fin angles of 30° and 90° for 2 mm fin height and 10 mm offset from the horizontal direction for heat transfer enhancement with the use of a conjugated heat transfer approach and for pressure drop in a plate fin heat exchanger is numerically evaluated. The rectangular fins are located on a flat plate channel (A-type). The numerical computations are performed by solving a steady, three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equation and an energy equation by using FLUENT software program. Air is taken as working fluid. The study is carried out at Reynolds number of 400 and inlet temperatures, velocities of cold and hot air are fixed as 300 K, 600 K and 1.338 m.s^?1, 0.69 m.s^?1, respectively. This study presents new fin geometries which have not been researched in the literature for plate fin heat exchangers. The results show that while the heat transfer is increased by about 10% at the exit of a channel with the fin type of C, it is increased up to 8% for the fin angle of 90° when compared to a channel with A-type under the counter flow. The heat transfer enhancements for different values of Reynolds number and for varying fin heights, fin intervals and also temperature distributions of fluids are investigated for parallel and counter flow.     

Numerical Study on Mixed Convection Heat Transfer in Inclined Triangular Cavities

This article presents a parametric study on flow behavior and heat transfer in an inclined triangular cavity subjected to a moving lid and temperature differential. The systematic study considers three physical parameters (inclination angle, Reynolds number, and Grashof number) and explores the influence of these parameters on flow pattern and heat transfer characteristics. A series of computations were performed for the inclination angle (θ) ranging from 0° to 360° (in increments of 45°), Reynolds number (Re) from 100 to 1,500, and Grashof number (Gr) from 10⁵ to 10⁷. The numerical results show that there are three kinds of flow regime in a triangular cavity inclined from 0° to 360°: buoyancy-dominant, inertia-dominant, and intermediate transition (mixed convection flow). It is interesting that the case with Re = 100, Gr = 10⁷, and θ = 0° exhibits five circulation cells and induces excellent thermal performance, corresponding to wavy profiles in local Nusselt number and local friction factor. The study also reveals that the good thermal performance within a local region can generate higher friction force on the neighboring boundary and this friction force may reduce the strength of the vortex.     

An experimental study on convection heat transfer from an array of discrete heat sources

Convection heat transfer from an array of discrete heat sources inside a rectangular channel has been investigated experimentally for air. The lower surface of the channel was equipped with 8×4 flush-mounted heat sources subjected to uniform heat flux; the sidewalls and the upper wall were insulated and adiabatic. The experimental parametric study was made for an aspect ratio of AR=2, Reynolds numbers 864≤Re_Dh≤7955, and modified Grashof numbers Gr*=1.72×10⁸ to 2.76×10⁹. From the experimental measurements, surface temperature distributions of the discrete heat sources were obtained and effects of Reynolds and Grashof numbers on these temperatures were investigated. Furthermore, Nusselt number distributions were calculated for different Reynolds and Grashof numbers. Results show that surface temperatures increase with increasing Grashof number and decrease with increasing Reynolds number. However, with the increase in the buoyancy affected secondary flow and the onset of instability, temperatures level off and even drop as a result of heat transfer enhancement. This outcome can also be observed from the variation of the row-averaged Nusselt number showing an increase towards the exit.     

Experimental study of forced convective heat transfer in a different arranged corrugated channel

In this study, heat transfer rate for sinusoidal corrugated channel has been experimentally investigated. Three different type sharp corrugation peak fins and a plain surface were used in the experiment. Results were carried out for constant heat flux of 616 W/m², varied Reynolds number Re 1500 to 8000 for the corrugation angle (27, 50 and 22/60°) and channel height of 5 and 10 mm. Nusselt number (Nu), convection heat transfer coefficient (h), Colburn factor (j) and enhancement ratio (E) against Reynolds number (Re) have been studied. The effects of the wavy geometry and channel height have been discussed. The increase of corrugated angle gave rise to a heat transfer rate.