Forced Convective Liquid Cooling of Arrays of Protruding Heated Elements Mounted in a Rectangular Duct

Abstract

Abstract Experiments are performed to study single-phase forced convection water cooling of arrays of protruding heat sources. Each array has four rows, with three elements in each row. Two arrays are mounted, one at the top and the other at the bottom of a rectangular channel. The Reynolds number based on channel height is varied from 2500 to 9000. Flow visualization revealed that the flow was fully turbulent even at the smallest Reynolds number. Different channel heights, ranging from 3 to 4 times the height of the elements, different heat inputs to the modules and different streamwise spacing between the elements are employed. The spanwise spacing between the elements is kept constant. It is found that the Nusselt number is higher for smaller channel heights and streamwise spacing, at constant Reynolds number. Buoyancy effects are found to be negligible over the parametric ranges considered here. A small variation in the heat transfer coefficient is found in the spanwise direction. The observed trends are considered in terms of the underlying transport processes. The heat transfer data are also correlated in terms of algebraic equations. High correlation coefficients attest to the consistency of results. The data are compared with previous air and water cooling studies, wherever possible, and a good agreement is obtained.