Heat Transfer Enhancement of Laminar Internal Flows Using Electrically-Induced Swirling Effect

A computational and experimental approach is conducted to enhance the convective heat transfer in fully developed laminar flow in parallel-plates configuration. Laminar internal flows are associated with unchanging Nusselt number along the channel due to the fully developed condition of the boundary layer. Inducing a swirling effect along the flow can disturb the flow field and enhance the convective heat transfer from the plates to the flow. The interaction between an electrically-induced secondary flow and the pressure-driven main flow complicates the flow field and causes a swirling effect. In this study, the electric field governing equations are solved numerically using finite volume method. In order to obtain a proper boundary condition for the charge density, an experimental setup was utilized to measure the time-averaged corona current. The distribution of electric field and charge density on the cross section of the channel is obtained and adopted to find the electric body-force at each point. The flow field computations are performed with FLUENT CFD code on a three-dimensional model using second-order upwind scheme. The secondary flow field is imposed on the cross section of the channel by corona discharge. An array of emitting and receiving flat electrodes are embedded in the parallel plates to induce a corona jet on the cross section of the channel. The axial component of velocity along with an array of corona jets gives birth to a swirling flow which can significantly enhance the convection coefficient and Nusselt number in the fully developed regime. This investigation indicated that the convective heat transfer can be enhanced up to 173% with an applied potential of 24 kV.