Influence of Oscillation-Induced Diffusion on Heat Transfer in a Uniformly Heated Channel

Abstract

An analysis of the effect of flow oscillations on laminar flow heat transfer in a channel with uniform heat addition is presented. It is shown that the effect of flow oscillations will be to reduce the channel heat transfer coefficient. This effect is due to the fact that the heat addition along the channel wall produces an increasing fluid temperature along the channel length. The flow oscillations interacting with this positive temperature gradient will induce a heat flow back toward the channel inlet. This will tend to inhibit the heat transfer process and will raise the wall temperature required to transfer away a given amount of heat at the channel wall.