A Numerical Study on Heat Transfer Enhancement of Automobile Thermoelectric Generator

2013 ◽  
Vol 860-863 ◽  
pp. 649-655
Author(s):  
Wei Ping Hu ◽  
Wei Jun Liu ◽  
Cheng Long Xu

The paper presents a numerical simulation to investigate the heat transfer enhancement of a rectangular pipe with longitudinal fins for the automobile thermoelectric generator. The fins were inserted near the pipe wall. The effects of flow rate (wi=10m/s-50m/s), fin length ( l=100, 133, 200, 400), fin spacing (d=20, 30, 40, 50), fin height (h=20, 30, 40, 50) on Nusselt number (Nu), friction factor (f) and overall enhancement ratios (ƞ) are investigated under constant wall temperature , using air as woking fluid. Number calculations were performed with FLUENT code. The obtained results reveal that all geometric parameters have important effect on the thermal performance of pipe, and the finned pipe show better thermal performance than smooth pipe. It is also found that the overall enhancement ratios increase with increasing fin length and fin height, also the overall enhancement ratios decrease with increasing fin spacing. All finned pipes have good heat performance with ƞ greater than 1. The best overall enhancement of 1.25 was achieved for wi=10m/s for which the fin dimensions is l = 400mm, d = 20mm, h = 50mm.

Author(s):  
Michael Maurer ◽  
Jens von Wolfersdorf ◽  
Michael Gritsch

An experimental and numerical study was conducted to determine the thermal performance of V-shaped ribs in a rectangular channel with an aspect ratio of 2:1. Local heat transfer coefficients were measured using the steady state thermochromic liquid crystal technique. Periodic pressure losses were obtained with pressure taps along the smooth channel sidewall. Reynolds numbers from 95,000 to 500,000 were investigated with V-shaped ribs located on one side or on both sides of the test channel. The rib height-to-hydraulic diameter ratios (e/Dh) were 0.0625 and 0.02, and the rib pitch-to-height ratio (P/e) was 10. In addition, all test cases were investigated numerically. The commercial software FLUENT™ was used with a two-layer k-ε turbulence model. Numerically and experimentally obtained data were compared. It was determined that the heat transfer enhancement based on the heat transfer of a smooth wall levels off for Reynolds numbers over 200,000. The introduction of a second ribbed sidewall slightly increased the heat transfer enhancement whereas the pressure penalty was approximately doubled. Diminishing the rib height at high Reynolds numbers had the disadvantage of a slightly decreased heat transfer enhancement, but benefits in a significantly reduced pressure loss. At high Reynolds numbers small-scale ribs in a one-sided ribbed channel were shown to have the best thermal performance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (5 Part A) ◽  
pp. 2965-2976 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Anwar ◽  
Hussain Tariq ◽  
Ahmad Shoukat ◽  
Hafiz Ali ◽  
Hassan Ali

Water cooled heat sinks are becoming popular due to increased heat generation inside the microprocessor. Timely heat removal from microprocessor is the key factor for better performance and long life. Heat transfer enhancement is reached either by increasing the surface area density and/or by altering the base fluid properties. Nanoparticles emerge as a strong candidate to increase the thermal conductivity of base fluids. In this research, the thermal performance of mini-channel heat sinks for different fin spacing (0.2 mm, 0.5 mm, 1 mm, and 1.5 mm) was investigated numerically using CuO-water nanofluids with volumetric concentration of 1.5%. The numerical values computed were than compared with the literature and a close agreement is achieved. We recorded the minimum base temperature of chip to be 36.8?C for 0.2 mm fin spacing heat sink. A reduction of 9.1% in base temperature was noticed using CuO-water nanofluids for 0.2 mm fin spacing as compared to previously experimental estimated value using water [1]. The drop percentage difference in pressure between water and CuO-water nanofluids was 2.2-13.1% for various fin spacing heat sinks. The percentage difference in thermal resistance between water and CuO-water nanofluids was computed 12.1% at maximum flow rate. We also observed uniform temperature distribution for all heat sinks.


Author(s):  
Feng Zhang ◽  
Xinjun Wang ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Daren Zheng ◽  
Junfei Zhou

The present work represents a numerical study on the flow and heat transfer characteristics in rectangular channels with protrusion-grooved turbulators. The Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations, coupled with SST turbulence model, are adopted and solved. In this paper, six geometric protrusion shapes (circular, rectangular, triangular, trapezoidal, circular with leading round concave and circular with trailing round concave) are selected to perform the study. The flow structure, heat transfer enhancement, friction factor as well as thermal performance factor of the rectangular channel fitted with combined groove and different protrusions have been obtained at the Reynolds number ranging from 5000 to 20000. The results indicate that the protrusion shapes affect the velocity distribution near the groove surface. The case of circular protrusion with leading round concave provides the highest overall heat transfer enhancement, while it also causes the highest pressure loss penalty. The case of rectangular protrusion has the lowest overall heat transfer enhancement with high pressure loss penalty. The case of circular protrusion has similar overall heat transfer enhancement with cases of trapezoidal protrusion as well as circular protrusion with trailing round concave, but the pressure loss penalty of the case of circular protrusion is the lowest. In addition, the best overall thermal performance can be observed for circular protrusion-grooved channel.


2006 ◽  
Vol 129 (4) ◽  
pp. 800-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Maurer ◽  
Jens von Wolfersdorf ◽  
Michael Gritsch

An experimental and numerical study was conducted to determine the thermal performance of V-shaped ribs in a rectangular channel with an aspect ratio of 2:1. Local heat transfer coefficients were measured using the steady state thermochromic liquid crystal technique. Periodic pressure losses were obtained with pressure taps along the smooth channel sidewall. Reynolds numbers from 95,000 to 500,000 were investigated with V-shaped ribs located on one side or on both sides of the test channel. The rib height-to-hydraulic diameter ratios (e∕Dh) were 0.0625 and 0.02, and the rib pitch-to-height ratio (P∕e) was 10. In addition, all test cases were investigated numerically. The commercial software FLUENT™ was used with a two-layer k-ε turbulence model. Numerically and experimentally obtained data were compared. It was determined that the heat transfer enhancement based on the heat transfer of a smooth wall levels off for Reynolds numbers over 200,000. The introduction of a second ribbed sidewall slightly increased the heat transfer enhancement whereas the pressure penalty was approximately doubled. Diminishing the rib height at high Reynolds numbers had the disadvantage of a slightly decreased heat transfer enhancement, but benefits in a significantly reduced pressure loss. At high Reynolds numbers small-scale ribs in a one-sided ribbed channel were shown to have the best thermal performance.


Author(s):  
Michael Maurer ◽  
Jens von Wolfersdorf ◽  
Michael Gritsch

An experimental and numerical investigation was conducted to assess the thermal performance of V- and W-shaped ribs in a rectangular channel. The ribs were located on one channel sidewall in order to simulate a typical combustor liner cooling. The cross section of the channel had an aspect ratio of 2:1. Local heat transfer coefficients were measured using the transient thermochromic liquid crystal technique. Pressure taps along the channel sidewall were used to obtain the periodic pressure losses. The rib height-to-hydraulic diameter ratio (e/Dh) was set to 0.02, and the rib pitch-to-height ratios (P/e) were 5 and 10. The Reynolds numbers investigated varied from 80,000 to 500,000. All rib configurations were additionally investigated numerically and the obtained computational results were compared with experimental data. For all computations the commercial software FLUENT™ was used with a two-layer k-ε turbulence model. It could be demonstrated that applying W-shaped ribs instead of V-shaped ribs has the advantage of an increased heat transfer enhancement, but is accompanied by a rise in pressure loss. Reducing the rib pitch-to-height ratio from 10 to 5 decreases the heat transfer enhancement, but results in a significantly reduced pressure loss. Finally, the best thermal performance was found for W-shaped ribs with a pitch-to-height ratio of 10, having a slightly increased pressure loss but with considerable rise in heat transfer enhancement compared to V-shaped ribs.


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