Heat transfer and flow characteristics in a channel with one corrugated wall

Abstract

The present study numerically investigates the characteristics of three-dimensional turbulent flow and heat transfer in the channel with one corrugated wall heated with constant temperature by means of large eddy simulation. The corrugated wall is sinusoidal in the streamwise and spanwise directions. The Reynolds number in terms of bulk velocity and channel half-height is fixed at 2800 and the wave amplitude to wavelength ratio is varied in the range α/λ =0.01, 0.02, 0.04 in the streamwise direction and β/λ =0.01, 0.02, 0.04 in the spanwise direction. The results show that flow separation bubbles appear and near-wall streamwise vortices are generated with larger population in the upslope region of the bottom wall as wave amplitude increases. Compared with flat wall, the corrugated geometry increases the pressure coefficient and decreases the friction coefficient on the corrugated wall, and consequently increases the total drag coefficient owing to the increase of pressure coefficient, as expected, the heat transfer is higher. The waves in the spanwise direction converge the vortices into the trough along the streamwise direction and push them away from the bottom wall. Finally, thermal performance factor is defined and the effects of wave amplitude on the thermal performance are scrutinized.