Numerical Simulation of Oblique Air Jet Impingement on a Heated Flat Plate

Abstract

Jet impingement cooling has been studied extensively as this finds applications in the areas of reactor safety, electronic cooling, etc. Here, the convective heat transfer process between the air jet impingement on a uniformly heated inclined flat plate is studied numerically. In this numerical study, 3D simulations are carried out using commercial CFD code to investigate the effect of angle of inclination of plate, Reynolds number, and distance between the nozzle exit and the plate on the heat transfer characteristics. V2F model has been used to model turbulence for various nozzle–plate distance and Reynolds number. It can be concluded that V2F model predicts the Nusselt number variation on the plate satisfactorily. It is observed that point of maximum heat transfer is at the stagnation point in case of vertical jet impinging on a horizontal plate, while it shifts away from the point of impingement for the case of a vertical jet impinging on an inclined flat surface. The shift is toward the “compression side” or the “uphill side” of the air jet. The results are validated with experimental data from the literature. Detailed analysis of local heat transfer coefficients, velocity contours, temperature contours, and Nusselt number variations on the flat plate is presented.