Title: Pressure drop and heat transfer enhancement in a plane channel with a built-in bluff body: a comparison between triangular prism and square cylinder

Authors: Mefteh Bouhalleb; Hassen Abbassi

Addresses: Unit of Computational Fluid Dynamics and Transfer Phenomena, National Engineering School, University of Sfax, BP 1173, 3038, Sfax, Tunisia ' Unit of Computational Fluid Dynamics and Transfer Phenomena, National Engineering School, University of Sfax, BP 1173, 3038, Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract: Structure of laminar flow and heat transfer in a two-dimensional plane channel with a built-in bluff body is investigated from the numerical solutions of complete Navier-Stokes and energy equations. The physical problem is a plane channel of hot walls in which a bluff body is introduced in order to enhance the heat transfer from walls to the flow. Two bluff bodies are tested; triangular prism (TP) and square cylinder (SC). The effect of obstacle position on heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop is the principal aim of this study. Numerical results show that heat transfer reaches its maximum value when the obstacle is placed in the central region of the channel, the augmentation in heat transfer exceeds 23.07% and 32.30% for SC and TP respectively at Re = 200 when compared to the case of flow without obstacle.

Keywords: heat transfer enhancement; friction factor; incompressible flow; laminar flow; pressure drop; plane channels; built-in bluff bodies; triangular prisms; square cylinders.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2014.064562

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2014 Vol.14 No.5, pp.295 - 303

Published online: 27 Sep 2014 *

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