Numerical Study on the Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics in Rectangular Channels With Grooves and Different Protrusions Available to Purchase

The present work represents a numerical study on the flow and heat transfer characteristics in rectangular channels with protrusion-grooved turbulators. The Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations, coupled with SST turbulence model, are adopted and solved. In this paper, six geometric protrusion shapes (circular, rectangular, triangular, trapezoidal, circular with leading round concave and circular with trailing round concave) are selected to perform the study. The flow structure, heat transfer enhancement, friction factor as well as thermal performance factor of the rectangular channel fitted with combined groove and different protrusions have been obtained at the Reynolds number ranging from 5000 to 20000. The results indicate that the protrusion shapes affect the velocity distribution near the groove surface. The case of circular protrusion with leading round concave provides the highest overall heat transfer enhancement, while it also causes the highest pressure loss penalty. The case of rectangular protrusion has the lowest overall heat transfer enhancement with high pressure loss penalty. The case of circular protrusion has similar overall heat transfer enhancement with cases of trapezoidal protrusion as well as circular protrusion with trailing round concave, but the pressure loss penalty of the case of circular protrusion is the lowest. In addition, the best overall thermal performance can be observed for circular protrusion-grooved channel.