Computational analysis of turbulent flow and heat transfer in latticework cooling structures under various flow configurations

Abstract

Detailed computational analysis has been carried out to study the flow and heat transfer features in a latticework structure under various flow configurations. The three flow configurations include the radial flow configuration (RFC), the cross flow configuration (CFC) and the turning flow configuration (TFC). The numerical approach is validated both qualitatively and quantitatively by the comparisons between the present numerical data and the experimental data in open literature. It is found that the flow configurations show significant influences on the heat transfer, pressure loss and flow structure features in the latticework subchannels. Under the same cooling mass flow rates, the RFC latticework shows the highest averaged Nusselt numbers and the highest pressure losses, and the CFC and TFC latticework obtain appreciably lower but similar averaged heat transfer performance with much reduced pressure loss. Under the same subchannel Reynolds numbers, the latticework channels with the three flow configurations show similar averaged heat transfer enhancement but different pressure loss characteristics. Under the same subchannel Reynold number, latticework channels, especially the TFC latticework, show better overall thermal performance than rib turbulated and pin fin channels. The numerical results indicate the TFC latticework channel shows less uniform heat transfer than the RFC and CFC latticeworks due to the nonuniform flow distribution. The present study indicates that different flow configurations produce different flow characteristics including the flow turnings and interactions among the subchannels, resulting in the unique heat transfer features in the latticework cooling structures.