Effect of Blockage Ratio on Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop in Rotating Ribbed Channels at High Rotation Numbers

Abstract

At high rotation numbers, the rotational effects on heat transfer and flow could be diverse among the channels with different blockage ratios. However, most studies are conducted under low rotation number (less than 0.25) and selected blockage ratio. This paper experimentally investigates the effect of rib blockage ratio (ranges from 0 to 0.3) on pressure loss and heat transfer in a rotating square channel under high rotation number (up to 0.81). The ribs staggered on leading and trailing walls were oriented 90° to the mainstream flow. The Reynolds number and the wall-to-fluid temperature ratio varied from 20 000 to 40 000 and 0.08 to 0.2, respectively. The results showed that a larger blockage ratio resulted in a better heat transfer but a higher pressure drop. The optimum blockage ratio was 0.1 for the best thermal performance. The rotational effects were weakened in the passage with a higher blockage ratio, where the critical rotation number could not be observed. Moreover, the heat transfer enhancement induced by rotation was more significant when the temperature ratio increased. Finally, the correlations were developed for the pressure drop and the convective heat transfer on the leading and trailing edges.