Heat and mass transfer enhancement strategies by impinging jets: A literature review

Heat and mass transfer can be greatly increased when using impinging jets, regardless the application. The reason behind this is the complex behavior of the impinging jet flow which is leading to the generation of a multitude of flow phenomena, like: large-scale structures, small scale turbulent mixing, large curvature involving strong normal stresses and strong shear, stagnation, separation and re-attachment of the wall boundary layers, increased heat transfer at the impinged plate. All these phenomena listed above have highly unsteady nature and even though a lot of scientific studies have approached this subject, the impinging jet is not fully understood due to the difficulties of carrying out detailed experimental and numerically investigations. Nevertheless, for heat transfer enhancement in impinging jet applications, both passive and active strategies are employed. The effect of nozzle geometry and the impinging surface macrostructure modification are some of the most prominent passive strategies. On the other side, the most used active strategies utilize acoustical and mechanical oscillations in the exit plane of the flow, which in certain situations favors mixing enhancement. This is favored by the intensification of some instabilities and by the onset of large scale vortices with important levels of energy.