SPATIALLY-RESOLVED HEAT TRANSFER AND FLOW STRUCTURE IN A RECTANGULAR CHANNEL WITH 45° ANGLED RIB TURBULATORS

摘要

Spatially-resolved Nusselt numbers and flow structure are presented for a stationary channel with an aspect ratio of 4 and angled rib turbulators inclined at 45° with perpendicular orientations on two opposite surfaces. The flow structure results include time-averaged distributions of streamwise velocity and total pressure, surveyed over flow cross-sectional planes, as well as flow visualization images and friction factors. Results are given at different Reynolds numbers based on channel height from 270 to 90,000. The ratio of rib height to hydraulic diameter is .078, the rib pitch-to-height ratio is 10, and the blockage provided by the ribs is 25 percent of the channel cross-sectional area. Spatially-resolved local Nusselt numbers are highest on tops of the rib turbulators, with lower magnitudes on flat surfaces between the ribs, where regions of flow separation and shear layer re-attachment have pronounced influences on local surface heat transfer behavior. Also important are intense, highly unsteady secondary flows and vortex pairs, which increase secondary advection and turbulent transport over the entire channel cross-section. The resulting augmented local and spatially-averaged Nusselt number ratios (rib turbulator Nusselt numbers normalized by values measured in a smooth channel) generally increase on the rib tops as Reynolds number increases. Nusselt number ratios decrease on the flat regions away from the ribs, especially at locations just downstream of the ribs, as Reynolds number increases. Globally-averaged Nusselt number ratios vary from 3.36 to 2.82 as Reynolds number increases from 10,000 to 90,000. Thermal performance parameters also decrease somewhat as Reynolds number increases over this range, with values in approximate agreement with, or slightly higher than 60° continuous rib data measured by other investigators in a square channel.