Constructal Design Applied to a Channel with Triangular Fins Submitted to Forced Convection

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to present a numerical study of a two-dimensional channel with two triangular fins submitted to a laminar flow with forced convection heat transfer, evaluating the geometry of the first fin through the Constructal Design method. The main objectives are to maximize the heat transfer rate and minimize the pressure difference between the inlet and outlet flow of the channel for different dimensions of the first channel fin, considering the same Reynolds (ReH = 100) and Prandtl numbers (Pr = 0.71). The problem is subjected to three constraints given by the channel area, fin area and maximum occupancy area of ​​each fin. The system has three degrees of freedom. The first is given by the ratio between height and length of the channel, which is kept fixed, H/L = 0.0625. The other two are the ratio between height and width of the upstream fin base (H3/L3) positioned on the lower surface of the channel, and the ratio between height and width of the downstream fin (H4/L4) positioned on the upper surface of the channel, which is also kept fixed, H4/L4 = 1.11. The problem is simulated for three different values ​​of the fraction area of upstream fin (φ1 = 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3). For the numerical approach of the problem, the conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy are solved using the finite volume method (MVF). The results showed that a ratio of φ1 = 0.2 is the one that best meets the proposed multi-objective. It was also observed that φ1 = 0.1 led to a better fluid dynamics performance with a ratio between the best and the worst performance for fluid dynamics case of 25.2 times. For φ1 = 0.3, the best thermal performance is achieved, where the optimal case has a performance 65.75% higher than that reached for the worst case.