Thermal and hydrodynamic characteristics of forced and mixed convection flow through vertical rectangular channels

Abstract

This paper presents experimental and numerical studies for the case of turbulent forced and mixed convection flow of water through narrow vertical rectangular channel. The channel is composed of two parallel plates which are heated at a uniform heat flux, whereas, the other two sides of the channel are thermally insulated. The plates are of 64 mm in width, 800 mm in height, and separated from each other at a narrow gap of 2.7 mm. The Nusselt number distribution along the flow direction normalized by the Nusselt number for the case of turbulent forced convection flow is obtained experimentally with a comparison with the numerical results obtained from a commercial computer code. The quantitative determination of the nor- malized Nusselt number with respect to the dimension-less number Z = (Gr/Re21/8Pr0.5) is presented with a comparison with previous experimental results. Qualitative results are presented for the normalized temperature and velocity profiles in the transverse direction with a comparison between the forced and mixed convection flow for both the cases of upward and downward flow directions. The effect of the axial locations and the parameter Gr/Re on the variation of the normalized temperature profiles in the transverse direction for both the regions of forced and mixed convection and for both of the upward and downward flow directions are obtained. The normalized velocity profiles in the transverse directions are also determined at different inlet velocity and heat fluxes for the previous cases. It is found that the normalized Nusselt number is greater than one in the mixed convection region for both the cases of upward and downward flow and correlated well with the dimension-less parameter Z for both of the forced and mixed convection regions. The temperature profiles increase with increasing the axial location along the flow direction or the parameter Gr/Re for both of the forced and mixed convection regions, but this increase is more pronounced in the case of the mixed convection flow. For the forced convection region, the velocity profile depends only on Re with no difference between the upward and downward flow directions. Whereas, for the case of mixed convection flow, the velocity profile depends on the parameter Gr/Re with a main difference between upward and downward flow. These results are of great importance for any research reactor using plate type fuel elements or for any engineering application in which mixed convection flow through rectangular channel is encountered. .