Numerical Simulation of Laminar Flow Heat Transfer Enhancement Using Surface Modification
Heat transfer augmentation techniques have gained great importance in different engineering applications to deal with thermal management issues. In this work, a numerical investigation was carried out to see the effects of a modified surface on the heat transfer enhancement compared to a smooth surface. In the first case, spherical dimple arrays were applied to the surface. The effects were observed for dimples on the bottom wall of a channel for a laminar airflow. The effects of a 21×7 staggered array and a 19×4 inline array on the bottom wall were investigated. In the second case, the heat exchange enhancement in a rectangular channel using longitudinal vortex generators (LVG) for a laminar flow was considered. In both cases, a 3D steady viscous computational fluid dynamics package with an unstructured grid was used to compute the flow and temperature field. The heat transfer characteristics were studied as a function of the Reynolds number based on the hydraulic diameter of the channel. The heat transfer was quantified by computing the surface averaged Nusselt number. The pressure drop and flow characteristics were also calculated. The Nusselt number was compared with that of a smooth channel without surface modification to assess the level of heat transfer enhancement.