Role of Three-Dimensional Swirl in Forced Convection Heat Transfer Enhancement in Wavy-Plate-Fin Channels

The influence of swirl flow on enhanced forced convection in wavy-plate-fin cores has been investigated. Three-dimensional computational simulations were carried out for steady-state, periodically developed flow of air (Pr ~ 0.71) with channel walls subject to constant-uniform temperature and flow rates in the range 50 = Re = 4000. The recirculation that develops in the wall troughs and grows to an axial helix is scaled by the Swirl number Sw. As Sw increases, tornado-shaped vortices appear in the wave trough region mid-channel height, then extend longitudinally to encompass majority of the flow channel. As shown by the local wall-shear and heat transfer coefficient variations, the boundary-layer thinning upstream of the wave peak assists to intensify the momentum and heat transfer. However, the flow recirculation in wave trough impedes the local heat transfer at low Sw due to flow stagnation but promotes it at high Sw because of swirl-augmented fluid mixing. Swirling flows also create pressure drag that contributes substantively to the overall pressure loss. Its proportion grows as Sw, corrugation severity, and fin spacing increases to as much as 80% of the total pressure drop. The fin-wall curvature-induced secondary circulation nevertheless produces significantly enhanced convection, and more so in flows with higher Sw. It is quantified by Ff (or j), which is seen to increase log-linearly as fin corrugation aspect ratio and/or fin spacing ratio increases; the influence of cross-section aspect ratio is found to be marginal.