Analysis of transient laminar forced convective heat transfer in parallel-plate channels with time-varying thermal boundary conditions of the inlet and wall

Abstract

The problem of transient laminar forced convective heat transfer in parallel-plate channels with time-varying thermal boundary conditions of the inlet and wall is thoroughly investigated in this study. By employing the methodologies of generalized integral transform technique (GITT) and Duhamel's theorem, we successfully derive an analytical solution for this problem. To validate the accuracy of our analytical findings, a comparison is made with the corresponding numerical solution, demonstrating a remarkable level of agreement between the two approaches. In order to obtain the general patterns of heat transfer, we employ a decoupling technique to separate the thermal response in the case of harmonic temperature boundary conditions of the inlet and wall. This approach enables us to uncover the intricate relationship between the weight coefficient of heat input and the two-dimensional spatial location of the channel, as well as the dimensionless angular frequency of heat input. Furthermore, we present the corresponding dimensionless cut-off angular frequency of heat input at various locations within the channel. To gain further insights, we conduct an in-depth analysis of the effects of integration time or distance on the dimensionless optimum angular frequency corresponding to the dimensionless maximum average heat flux.