Numerical study of an impinging jet in cross-flow within and without influence of vortex generator structures on heat transfer

Abstract

An impinging jet heat transfer in cross-flow within and without influence of a vortex generator pair (VGP) is studied using the unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) and the large-eddy simulation (LES). The jet Reynolds number is 15,000 and the cross-flow Reynolds number is 30,000. The elliptic-blending Reynolds stress model (EBRSM) is implemented and adapted to capture the effect of the jet close to the wall. A v2 − f model is also implemented to study the ability in predicting such a benchmark. Both models benefit from the elliptic relaxation equation in the entire computational domain. The URANS results are compared with the accurate results of the LES method and also the experimental data. The URANS method successfully presents the flow features of the impinging jet while underpredicts the enhancing heat transfer over the channel bottom wall. The URANS method fails to correctly predict the flow structures forming around the impinging region, because the method is more diffusive than the LES method. When manipulating VGP, a rectangular winglet vortex generator pair is placed in the cross-flow channel and upstream of the jet nozzle to enhance the impinging heat transfer. The VGP increases the Nusselt number at the impingement region. The structures generated by the VGP alter the effects of the cross-flow on the impinging heat transfer. There are Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities at the shear layer of the jet and the cross-flow in the base flow (the flow without VGP). These instabilities are altered in the flow with VGP. A swirl component is added in the jet to study the effects on the heat transfer. The result shows that for a high or moderate level of swirl, the jet is diffused before the impinging.