CFD Simulations of Flow and Heat Transfer in a Zigzag Channel With Flow Pulsation

Author(s):  
Bolaji O. Olayiwola ◽  
Gerhard Schaldach ◽  
Peter Walzel

Heat transfer enhancement by pulsating flow in a zigzag channel has been numerically studied using a commercial CFD software for the ranges of laminar flow 0 < Re < 550. The influence of inclination angle α of the zigzag channel and oscillation parameters is investigated. The amplitude of the pulsatile flow was varied between 0.5 mm and 4 mm. The frequency f ranges between 0.5 Hz and 5.5 Hz. For steady flow, fluid mixing is promoted by self induced fluctuation due to the instability of the flow. The Reynolds number Re for the occurrence of significant eddy decreases with increase of the inclination angle of the channel. Superposition of oscillation additionally promotes further fluid mixing by the propagation of different scales of vortices. In comparison to straight channels, significant heat transfer in the laminar regime is possible using a zigzag channel with inclination angle greater than 15°. Further intensification of the heat transfer is possible with superposition of oscillation on the main flow through the channel. However, the heat transfer enhancement due to imposed oscillation is found to increase with decreasing Reynolds number. The effect of the imposed oscillation yields heat transfer enhancement E of up to 1.41 when compared with steady flow in zigzag channel at Reynolds number Re = 107, frequency f = 2.17 Hz and oscillation amplitude A = 1mm using a zigzag channel with an inclination angle α = 15°. Further heat transfer enhancement E of up to 1.80 at the same flow and oscillation conditions is possible with a zigzag channel having inclination angle α = 45°. The influence of oscillation frequency on the heat transfer enhancement E becomes significant as soon as the Womersley number W > 41.32. The effect of superposition of oscillation is not significant using a zigzag channel with inclination angle α = 60°. When the oscillation amplitude is increased up to 4 mm at Reynolds number Re = 107, frequency f = 2.17 Hz and inclination angle α = 45°, the heat transfer enhancement E of about 3.3 is obtained.

Author(s):  
Shian Li ◽  
Gongnan Xie ◽  
Bengt Sunden

Purpose – The employment of continuous ribs in a passage involves a noticeable pressure drop penalty, while other studies have shown that truncated ribs may provide a potential to reduce the pressure drop while keeping a significant heat transfer enhancement. The purpose of this paper is to perform computer-aided simulations of turbulent flow and heat transfer of a rectangular cooling passage with continuous or truncated 45-deg V-shaped ribs on opposite walls. Design/methodology/approach – Computational fluid dynamics technique is used to study the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in a three-dimensional rectangular passage with continuous and truncated V-shaped ribs. Findings – The inlet Reynolds number, based on the hydraulic diameter, is ranged from 12,000 to 60,000 and a low-Re k-e model is selected for the turbulent computations. The local flow structure and heat transfer in the internal cooling passages are presented and the thermal performances of the ribbed passages are compared. It is found that the passage with truncated V-shaped ribs on opposite walls provides nearly equivalent heat transfer enhancement with a lower (about 17 percent at high Reynolds number of 60,000) pressure loss compared to a passage with continuous V-shaped ribs or continuous transversal ribs. Research limitations/implications – The fluid is incompressible with constant thermophysical properties and the flow is steady. The passage is stationary. Practical implications – New and additional data will be helpful in the design of ribbed passages to achieve a good thermal performance. Originality/value – The results imply that truncated V-shaped ribs are very effective in improving the thermal performance and thus are suggested to be applied in gas turbine blade internal cooling, especially at high velocity or Reynolds number.


Author(s):  
Ping Li ◽  
Jianhui Chen ◽  
Huancheng Qu ◽  
Yonghui Xie ◽  
Di Zhang

A code based on the lattice-Boltzmann method was programmed. At various Reynolds numbers, simulations of the Cu/water nanofluid flow structure and heat transfer performance in a two dimensional microchannel with blocks (Re = 10–100) and grooves (Re = 50–200) were conducted, and the factors affecting the flow and heat transfer were explored. The flow and heat transfer of nanofluids with nanoparticle volume concentration of 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% were simulated, obtaining the velocity and temperature distributions to compare with the results of base fluid. Flow analysis showed that recirculation zones formed behind the blocks and in the grooves when nanofluids flowed in the microchannel, and the size of recirculation zone increased with the increase of Reynolds number and nanoparticle volume concentration. The core of the recirculation zone in the groove gradually moved to the right wall as Reynolds number increased at the same nanoparticle volume concentration, and the direction of the main flow was getting horizontal. Heat transfer results indicated that the addition of nanoparticles could promote fluid flow and energy transport, so that the thermal boundary layer thickness decreased and the heat transfer was enhanced. The heat transfer enhancement increased with the increase of Reynolds number and nanoparticle volume concentration. It was also shown that the heat transfer enhancement by increasing the Reynolds number was limited. The results could give a fundamental understanding for designing highly efficient heat exchangers.


2013 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gongnan Xie ◽  
Jian Liu ◽  
Weihong Zhang ◽  
Giulio Lorenzini ◽  
Cesare Biserni

Repeated ribs are often employed in the midsection of internal cooling passages of turbine blades to augment the heat transfer by air flowing through the internal ribbed passages. Though the research of flow structure and augmented heat transfer inside various ribbed passages has been well conducted, previous works mostly paid much attention to the influence of rib topology (height-to-pitch, blockage ratio, skew angle, rib shape). The possible problem involved in the usage of ribs (especially with larger blockage ratios) is pressure loss penalty. Thus, in this case, the design of truncated ribs whose length is less than the passage width might fit the specific cooling requirements when pressure loss is critically considered. A numerical study of truncated ribs on turbulent flow and heat transfer inside a passage of a gas turbine blade is performed when the inlet Reynolds number ranges from 8000 to 24,000. Different truncation ratio (truncated-length to passage-width) rib geometries are designed and then the effect of truncation ratio on the pressure drop and heat transfer enhancement is observed under the condition of constant total length. The overall performance characteristics of various truncated rib passages are also compared. It is found that the heated face with a rib that is truncated 12% in length in the center (case A) has the highest heat transfer coefficient, while the heated face with a rib that is truncated 4% at three locations over its length, in the center and two sides (case D), has a reduced pressure loss compared with passages of other designs and provides the lowest friction factors. Although case A shows larger heat transfer augmentation, case D can be promisingly used to augment side-wall heat transfer when the pressure loss is considered and the Reynolds number is relatively large.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3723
Author(s):  
Barah Ahn ◽  
Vikram C. Patil ◽  
Paul I. Ro

Heat transfer enhancement techniques used in liquid piston gas compression can contribute to improving the efficiency of compressed air energy storage systems by achieving a near-isothermal compression process. This work examines the effectiveness of a simultaneous use of two proven heat transfer enhancement techniques, metal wire mesh inserts and spray injection methods, in liquid piston gas compression. By varying the dimension of the inserts and the pressure of the spray, a comparative study was performed to explore the plausibility of additional improvement. The addition of an insert can help abating the temperature rise when the insert does not take much space or when the spray flowrate is low. At higher pressure, however, the addition of spacious inserts can lead to less efficient temperature abatement. This is because inserts can distract the free-fall of droplets and hinder their speed. In order to analytically account for the compromised cooling effects of droplets, Reynolds number, Nusselt number, and heat transfer coefficients of droplets are estimated under the test conditions. Reynolds number of a free-falling droplet can be more than 1000 times that of a stationary droplet, which results in 3.95 to 4.22 times differences in heat transfer coefficients.


2012 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Neil Jordan ◽  
Lesley M. Wright

An alternative to ribs for internal heat transfer enhancement of gas turbine airfoils is dimpled depressions. Relative to ribs, dimples incur a reduced pressure drop, which can increase the overall thermal performance of the channel. This experimental investigation measures detailed Nusselt number ratio distributions obtained from an array of V-shaped dimples (δ/D = 0.30). Although the V-shaped dimple array is derived from a traditional hemispherical dimple array, the V-shaped dimples are arranged in an in-line pattern. The resulting spacing of the V-shaped dimples is 3.2D in both the streamwise and spanwise directions. A single wide wall of a rectangular channel (AR = 3:1) is lined with V-shaped dimples. The channel Reynolds number ranges from 10,000–40,000. Detailed Nusselt number ratios are obtained using both a transient liquid crystal technique and a newly developed transient temperature sensitive paint (TSP) technique. Therefore, the TSP technique is not only validated against a baseline geometry (smooth channel), but it is also validated against a more established technique. Measurements indicate that the proposed V-shaped dimple design is a promising alternative to traditional ribs or hemispherical dimples. At lower Reynolds numbers, the V-shaped dimples display heat transfer and friction behavior similar to traditional dimples. However, as the Reynolds number increases to 30,000 and 40,000, secondary flows developed in the V-shaped concavities further enhance the heat transfer from the dimpled surface (similar to angled and V-shaped rib induced secondary flows). This additional enhancement is obtained with only a marginal increase in the pressure drop. Therefore, as the Reynolds number within the channel increases, the thermal performance also increases. While this trend has been confirmed with both the transient TSP and liquid crystal techniques, TSP is shown to have limited capabilities when acquiring highly resolved detailed heat transfer coefficient distributions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 256839
Author(s):  
Somchai Wongwises ◽  
Afshin J. Ghajar ◽  
Kwok-wing Chau ◽  
Octavio García Valladares ◽  
Balaram Kundu ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Gongnan Xie ◽  
Bengt Sunde´n

Gas turbine blade tips encounter large heat load as they are exposed to the high temperature gas. A common way to cool the blade and its tip is to design serpentine passages with 180-deg turns under the blade tip-cap inside the turbine blade. Improved internal convective cooling is therefore required to increase the blade tip life time. This paper presents numerical predictions of turbulent fluid flow and heat transfer through two-pass channels with and without guide vanes placed in the turn regions using RANS turbulence modeling. The effects of adding guide vanes on the tip-wall heat transfer enhancement and the channel pressure loss were analyzed. The guide vanes have a height identical to that of the channel. The inlet Reynolds numbers are ranging from 100,000 to 600,000. The detailed three-dimensional fluid flow and heat transfer over the tip-walls are presented. The overall performances of several two-pass channels are also evaluated and compared. It is found that the tip heat transfer coefficients of the channels with guide vanes are 10∼60% higher than that of a channel without guide vanes, while the pressure loss might be reduced when the guide vanes are properly designed and located, otherwise the pressure loss is expected to be increased severely. It is suggested that the usage of proper guide vanes is a suitable way to augment the blade tip heat transfer and improve the flow structure, but is not the most effective way compared to the augmentation by surface modifications imposed on the tip-wall directly.


Author(s):  
Samsul Islam ◽  
Md. Shariful Islam ◽  
Mohammad Zoynal Abedin

The heat transfer enhancement is recycled in many engineering uses such as heat exchangers, refrigeration and air conditioning structures, chemical apparatuses, and automobile radiators. Hence many enhancing extended fin patterns are developed and used. In multi louvered fin, in this segment for multi-row fin and tube heat exchanger, an increase in heat transfer enhancement is found 58% for ReH = 350. When the Reynolds number is 1075, the temperature gradient is more distinct for greater louver angle that is the higher heat transfer enhanced for large louver angle. For variable louver angle heat exchanger, the maximum heat transfer improvement achieved by 118% Reynolds number at 1075. In the vortex generator for the delta winglet vortex generator, the extreme enhancement of heat transfer increased to 16% compared to the baseline geometry (at ReDh = 600). For a compact louvered heat exchanger, the results showed that a regular arrangement of louvered fins gives a 9.3% heat transfer improvement. In multi-region louver fins and flat tubes heat exchanger, the louver fin with 4 regions and the louver fin with 6 regions are far better than the conventional fin in overall performance. At the same time, the louver fin with 6 regions is also better than the louver fin with 4-region. The available work is in experimental form as well as numerical form performed by computational fluid dynamics.


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