Flow Structure and Heat Transfer Analysis in a Laminar Channel Flow with Built-in Side-by-Side Dual Triangular Prism

Abstract

This paper presents the numerical analysis of fluid flow in a parallel plate channel having dual triangular prisms in side-by-side arrangement. The computational domain is considered two dimensional. The fluid flow is assumed to be incompressible, steady and laminar with constant thermophysical properties. The computations are performed for a Reynolds number of 100 and blockage ratio (b) of 0.25, where the blockage ratio (b) is the ratio of prism base to the channel height (b = B/H). The unstructured triangular grid is used for the computational domain. The results are compared with the channel having single triangular prism and plane channel. The channel walls are subjected to a constant wall temperature. Unsteady two-dimensional Navier Stokes and energy equations are solved numerically using a control volume method. The SIMPLE discretization algorithm is used for the convective terms in the solution equations. CFD software FLUENT 6.2 is used to simulate the fluid flow and temperature field. A preprocessor GAMBIT is used to generate the required mesh for the solver. Results illustrate that the Nusselt numbers on the channel walls are strongly modified by the vortices induced by the presence of triangular prisms. In the presence of triangular prisms, the average Nusselt number is 8.5% more as compared to plane channel and 4.5% as compared to channel having single prism at the same Reynolds number and blockage ratio.