Heat Transfer Enhancement inside Rectangular Channel by Means of Vortex Generated by Perforated Concave Rectangular Winglets

Abstract

Passive methods using vortex generators (VGs) to enhance heat transfer have been a concern of researchers in recent decades. This study is intended to investigate the strength of the vortex generated by VGs by trying to reduce the pressure drop in the flow. The present work also takes into account the influence of the vortex intensity on the improvement of heat transfer, which can be indicated by the low value of the synergy angle. Experiments were carried out in the current investigation to validate the results of the numerical simulations in the Reynolds number range of 3102 to 16,132. The study results indicate that the observed heat transfer coefficients from the experimental and simulation results have a similar tendency with relatively small errors. A reduction in pressure drop is observed with the use of perforated concave rectangular winglets (PCRWs) against the nonperforated ones although there was a slight decrease in heat transfer improvements.

Keywords

• vortex intensity
• synergy angle
• heat transfer
• pressure drop