Abstract
Details on the hydrothermal characteristics of turbulent flows in a solar channel heat exchanger (CHE) are highlighted. The device has transverse T-shaped vortex generators (VGs). Two staggered VGs (baffles) are inserted on the lower and upper walls of the CHE. The working fluid is Newtonian and incompressible, with constant physical properties. The ANSYS Fluent 17.0 is utilized in this survey. The second-order upwind and QUICK schemes were utilized to perform the discretization of pressure and convective terms, respectively. The SIMPLE algorithm was employed to achieve the speed-pressure coupling. The residual target 10−9 was selected as a convergence criterion. The effects of the T-VGs’ geometrical shape and Reynolds numbers were inspected. At the baffle level, the wall effect was augmented due to the reduction of the passage area of flows, which is estimated here to be 55%, resulting thus in a considerable resistance to the movement of fluid particles. The thermal distribution is highly dependent on the flow structures within the CHE. Since the fluid agitation yields an enhanced mixing, it allows thus an excellent heat transfer. The most considerable rates of thermal transfer were obtained with high Re, which resulted from the intensified mixing of fluid particles through the formation of recirculation cells and the interaction with the walls of the T-VGs and the CHE. The T-baffles with intense flow rates yielded negative turbulent speeds and intensify the fluid agitation, which improves the thermal exchange rates.
Highlights
IntroductionThermal devices are utilized in several daily and industrial processes
Three main zones are significant, where the recirculation cells extend with the raise of investigated numerically theone, samea channel heat exchanger (CHE)
A particle fluid acceleration with great axial velocity is observed just upstream of the baffles, where the streamlines are deflected. Another acceleration of fluid flow is yielded in the area limited by the obstacle tip and the channel patterns is significant, where the recirculation cells extend with the raise of Re
Summary
Thermal devices are utilized in several daily and industrial processes. The optimization of their effectiveness remains of great concern to designers [1,2,3]. Baffles inside the flow duct in HEs is known as an efficient technique to promote the energy performance of such devices [4,5,6]. The presence of baffles, the so-called vortex generators, yields turbulence and lengthens the fluid particle trajectories, which results in enhanced convective thermal exchange and efficiency [7,8,9]. Some research studies have been carried out on various types of HEs and their implementations. Kelkar and Ptankar [11]
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