Hydrodynamics and Heat Transfer Analysis of Airflow in a Sinusoidally Curved Channel

Abstract

For heat transfer enhancement in heat exchangers, different types of channels are often tested. The performance of heat exchangers can be made better by considering geometry composed of sinusoidally curved walls. This research studies the modeling and simulation of airflow through a units long sinusoidally curved wavy channel. For the purpose, two-dimensional Navier Stokes equations along with heat equations are under consideration. To simulate the fluid flow problem, the finite element-based software COMSOL Multiphysics is used. The parametric study for Reynolds number from to and the period of vibration <i>P</i> from to are observed. The surface plots, streamline patterns, contours, and graphs are presented for the velocity field magnitude, temperature, and pressure against the Reynolds number as well as period of vibration. The results are compared with various literature. It is found that due to the creation of periodic contraction regions the velocity magnitude of the flow is continuously increasing with the increase of Reynolds number, on the contrary the pressure is decreasing from inlet to outlet of the channel. Also, a periodic variation in the pressure distribution along the vibrating boundaries has been found with an average increase of for the high Reynolds number. A novel work was done by expressing the rotation rate per second in terms of local Reynolds number for the recirculating regions found due to the periodic oscillation of the boundaries. The average temperature near the outlet where a fixed temperature is imposed initially is decreasing with an increase in Reynolds number. The convection process is weakened due to an increase of periodic vibration of boundaries.