Numerical Investigation of Convective Heat Transfer on a Dynamic Wall Heat Exchanger With Varying Amplitude and Frequency

The current work aims to investigate the thermo-hydraulic performances of a dynamic wall heat exchanger by varying amplitude and frequency of the oscillating waveform. The lower wall of the channel is exposed to constant heat flux, the upper insulating wall is deforming in a sinusoidal waveform, and water is taken as the working fluid. The governing partial differential equations are solved by using the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian finite element method. The study has been performed in the transient regime for up to 1.0 second. At first the effects of frequency variation over the average mass flow rate, convective heat transfer coefficient, and the average liquid temperature have been observed for a particular amplitude of the dynamic wall. It has been found that the mass flow rate of water increases linearly with increasing frequency. Convective heat transfer coefficient decreases with increasing frequency up to 50 Hz, then starts to increase notably. Interestingly, the fluctuating average liquid temperature decreases and reaches a steady-state faster with increasing frequency. To explore the effect of amplitude over heat transfer characteristics, the amplitude ratio of the sinusoidal wave is varied maintaining a constant frequency of oscillation. It has been observed that with increasing amplitude, both mass flow rate and convective heat transfer coefficient increase exponentially. Increasing amplitude ratio from 0.5 to 0.9 results in an increment in the convective heat transfer coefficient by about 5 times. Although, the average liquid temperature decreases and reaches a steady state faster with increasing amplitude, initially the peak temperature of the water is recorded for the highest amplitude.