Piston-driven laminar flow and heat transfer in a plane channel with a sudden expansion

 This paper presents a numerical study of piston-driven heat transfer and fluid flow in a plane channel containing a sudden expansion. The numerical method employed is based on a control-volume-based finite element method for incompressible flow with a staggered and moving grid and SIMPLER algorithm for pressure-velocity coupling. The numerical results show a good agreement with the experimental data reported in the literature. Results concerning time and space evolution of the thermal and flow fields are presented for different values of the expansion ratio, the initial clearance volume, and the piston velocity. Received: 20 April 2002 / Accepted: 23 January 2003