Heat Transfer Enhancement by EHD-Induced Oscillatory Flows

Abstract

Prior numerical solutions of electrohydrodynamic (EHD) gas flows in a horizontal channel with a positive-corona discharged wire have revealed the existence of steady-periodic flows. It is speculated that heat transfer by forced convection may be greatly enhanced by taking advantage of this oscillatory flow phenomenon induced by electric field. To verify this speculation, computations have been performed for flows with Reynolds numbers varying from 0 to 4800 and the dimensionless EHD number (which signifies the effect of electric field) ranging from 0.05 to ∞. The results show that heat transfer enhancement increases with the applied voltage. For a given electric field, oscillation in the flow and temperature fields occurs at small Reynolds numbers. Due to the presence of oscillatory secondary flows, there is a significant enhancement in heat transfer.