Impingement Cooling in Narrow Rectangular Channel With Novel Surface Features

This paper describes a detailed experimental investigation of narrow jet impingement channel with surface features. Three novel surface features: aerofoil shaped dimple cavities on the target plate, chevron elements extending between the jet issuing plate and the target plate and 45 degree wedges mounted on the jet-issuing plate, are proposed. The narrow rectangular channel is 254 mm × 57.2 mm × 19.1 mm (10” × 2.25” × 0.75”) in dimensions and consists of five jets with a constant diameter, D of 9.525 mm (0.375”). The inter-jet spacing and jet-to-target plate distance is 4D and 2D, respectively. Three test cases with different novel surface features are proposed, and the effect of these surface features on the distribution of heat transfer coefficient on the target plate is characterized using the transient liquid crystal technique. In the first test case, dimpulated surface features are introduced on the target plate. The second case consists of chevron elements which extend between the jet issuing plate and the target plate, while the third case has 45 degree wedges mounted on the jet-issuing plate. The smooth jet impingement channel is used as a baseline case for comparison of the heat transfer coefficient distribution on the target plate. The Reynolds number is defined based on the jet diameter, D and bulk velocity of the jet. The experiments were performed at Reynolds number ranging between 61,000 to 98,000. In order to gain a better insight of the flow field within the channel for each of these features, a steady state numerical simulation was performed for each case using the commercially available software, ANSYS CFX. The boundary conditions for these simulations were set as close to the experimental conditions as possible. For turbulence closure, the Shear Stress Transport (SST) model was used which has been shown to be reasonably accurate with moderate computational costs. The numerical results are in favorable trend compared to the values obtained through experimentation. However, in certain regions, the SST turbulence model has overpredicted the heat transfer coefficient values. The results show that the first test case with dimpulated surface features exhibits the highest heat transfer enhancement among all the tested configurations. This enhancement is approximately 25 percent higher than that of the baseline case. The presence of the chevron elements has minimized the deflection of the jets due to crossflow, but, inhibited the spreading of the impinging jets on the target plate. This, in turn, has reduced the local heat transfer performance quite substantially. In case of the 45 degree wedges, the heat transfer enhancement was augmented at the downstream, which was ultimately caused by the diversion of the crossflow towards the target plate.