Heat transfer in channel flow around a rectangular cylinder

Abstract

Heat transfer and flow visualization experiments have been made in a channel with a rectangular cylindrical section having various width-to-height ratios. Vortices were observed to shed periodically from the cylinder and then reattach to the channel wall. This reattachment of the vortices induces a periodic fluctuation in heat flux at the wall and enhances the heat transfer in the downstream region of the cylinder. The streamwise position of the maximum Nusselt number moves downstream with decreasing width-to-height ratio, b/h, of the cylinder. When b/h = 2.0, however, the heat flux periodicity disappears because the wake narrows intermittently owing to reattachment of the separated nows to the upper and lower surfaces of the cylinder.