Numerical simulation of turbulent airflow and heat transfer through a rectangular channel along with two trapezoidal baffle plates: Comparison between plane and trapezoidal shape baffles

Abstract

The current work presents the numerical simulation of turbulent airflow and heat transfer through a rectangular channel along with two trapezoidal baffles which is an important issue for heat exchangers and for that flow phenomena and heat transfer characteristics are need to be identified. Governing equations are solved by FVM and the numerical simulations have been carried out by FLUENT software with the turbulence k-ε model. At Re = 87300, the current work has been validated with the results of Dermitini et al.. Aim of this current work is to study the dynamic behavior of turbulent airflow and heat transfer characteristics for Re ∈ [12000 – 48000]. Moreover, flow structure, normalized velocity profile, normalized skin friction coefficient, normalized friction factor, local and average Nusselt number have also been studied for Re ∈ [12000 – 48000]. For both plane and trapezoidal baffles it has been revealed that pressure drop attains its maximum value at the upstream of the channel and minimum value at the downstream of the channel. Furthermore, it has been concluded that in trapezoidal baffle case normalized flow velocity, normalized skin friction coefficient and friction factor, normalized local and average Nusselt number and thermal enhancement factor becomes more pronounced as compared to plane baffle case. From the present work it has been concluded that in terms of heat transfer trapezoidal baffles will become more convenient rather than the use of plane baffles.