Thermal Analysis of a Channel Containing Multiple Heated Obstacles With Localized Heat Generations

Abstract

This paper studies conjugate heat transfer for two-dimensional, developing flows over an array of multiple rectangular obstacles with localized heat generations. The paper focuses on the spatial distributions of Nusselt number and temperature along the solid/fluid interface, as well as the maximum temperature of the obstacles. The results are compared to uniform heat generation configuration to validate the approach of approximating the local heat generation as uniform. A finite element technique is utilized to solve the governing equations, along with boundary conditions for a wide range of Reynolds numbers and obstacles' thermal conductivities. At certain conditions, the numerical results showed that the uniform heat generation approach could lead to a significant analysis error. When the obstacles' thermal conductivity and Reynolds number are low, the uniform heat generation approach becomes invalid. The average Nusselt number and maximum temperature of the obstacles for the localized heat generation configuration are fully documented.