Enhancing mixing in heat exchangers for low Re regimes is vital. A better mixing may be achieved by using corrugated plates. In this work, the flow patterns between corrugated plates with a novel egg-carton geometry were studied. Three-dimensional (3D) numerical models were developed for the steady laminar flow between two corrugated plates having 180 deg or 0 deg phase angles. The Reynolds number (Re ≤ 600) was defined as a function of the average distance between the corrugated plates. The numerical models were strictly developed and corroborated to achieve global convergence, local convergence, and grid-size independence. For both phase angles, it was determined that “close recirculations” decrease in size downstream and finally disappear becoming “open recirculations” due to the flow developing characteristics; the secondary flow regions were found to grow downstream; interestingly, increments on the Reynolds number favor recirculation growth and early flow detachment; the behavior and geometry of the recirculation were in line with previous flow visualization results. The recirculations were determined to be z-symmetric with respect to the channel center only for the 180 deg model. The recirculations in the 0 deg model were smaller and became “open recirculations” earlier than in the 180 deg model. Convex geometries on the transversal direction were found to favor detachment, while concave geometries inhibit it. The capability of the numerical methods to track flow paths in any direction showed a complex three-dimensional flow causing 3D-interaction among secondary flows and the main flow not reported before for these channels and just hinted by previous flow visualization studies.

## References

1.
Kanaris
,
A. G.
,
Mouza
,
A. A.
, and
Paras
,
S. V.
,
2006
, “
Flow and Heat Transfer Prediction in a Corrugated Plate Heat Exchanger Using a CFD Code
,”
Chem. Eng. Technol.
,
29
(
8
), pp.
923
930
.
2.
,
A. G.
, and
Saha
,
A. K.
,
2013
, “
Characteristics of Fully Developed Flow and Heat Transfer in Channels With Varying Wall Geometry
,”
ASME J. Heat Transfer
,
136
(
2
), p.
021703
.
3.
Khanafer
,
K.
,
Al-Azmi
,
B.
,
Al-Shammari
,
A.
, and
Pop
,
I.
,
2008
, “
Mixed Convection Analysis of Laminar Pulsating Flow and Heat Transfer Over a Backward-Facing Step
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer
,
51
(
25–26
), pp.
5785
5793
.
4.
Hemida
,
H. N.
,
Sabry
,
M. N.
,
Abdel-Rahim
,
A.
, and
Mansour
,
H.
,
2002
, “
Theoretical Analysis of Heat Transfer in Laminar Pulsating Flow
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer
,
45
(
8
), pp.
1767
1780
.
5.
Jafari
,
M.
,
,
M.
, and
Sedighi
,
K.
,
2014
, “
Heat Transfer Enhancement in a Corrugated Channel Using Oscillating Flow and Nanoparticles: An LBM Approach
,”
Numer. Heat Transfer, Part A
,
65
(
6
), pp.
601
626
.
6.
Takabi
,
B.
, and
Salehi
,
S.
,
2014
, “
Augmentation of the Heat Transfer Performance of a Sinusoidal Corrugated Enclosure by Employing Hybrid Nanofluid
,”
,
6
, p.
16
.
7.
Ünal
,
E.
,
Ahn
,
H.
, and
Sorguven
,
E.
,
2016
, “
Experimental Investigation on Flows in a Corrugated Channel
,”
ASME J. Fluids Eng.
,
138
(
7
), p.
070908
.
8.
Ammar
,
H.
,
Ould El Moctar
,
A.
,
Garnier
,
B.
, and
Peerhossaini
,
H.
,
2014
, “
Flow Pulsation and Geometry Effects on Mixing of Two Miscible Fluids in Microchannels
,”
ASME J. Fluids Eng.
,
136
(
12
), p.
121101
.
9.
Karami
,
M.
,
Shirani
,
E.
,
Jarrahi
,
M.
, and
Peerhossaini
,
H.
,
2014
, “
Mixing by Time-Dependent Orbits in Spatiotemporal Chaotic Advection
,”
ASME J. Fluids Eng.
,
137
(
1
), p.
011201
.
10.
Mahmud
,
S.
,
,
A.
, and
Feroz
,
C.
,
2003
, “
Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics Inside a Wavy Tube
,”
Heat Mass Transfer
,
39
(
5
), pp.
387
393
.
11.
Oviedo-Tolentino
,
F.
,
Romero-Méndez
,
R.
,
Hernández-Guerrero
,
A.
, and
Girón-Palomares
,
B.
,
2008
, “
Experimental Study of Fluid Flow in the Entrance of a Sinusoidal Channel
,”
Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow
,
29
(
5
), pp.
1233
1239
.
12.
Oviedo-Tolentino
,
F.
,
Romero-Méndez
,
R.
,
Hernández-Guerrero
,
A.
, and
Girón-Palomares
,
B.
,
2009
, “
Use of Diverging or Converging Arrangement of Plates for the Control of Chaotic Mixing in Symmetric Sinusoidal Plate Channels
,”
Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci.
,
33
(
2
), pp.
208
214
.
13.
Sawyers
,
D. R.
,
Sen
,
M.
, and
Chang
,
H.-C.
,
1998
, “
Heat Transfer Enhancement in Three-Dimensional Corrugated Channel Flow
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer
,
41
(
22
), pp.
3559
3573
.
14.
Girón-Palomares
,
B.
,
Hernández-Guerrero
,
A.
,
Romero-Méndez
,
R.
, and
Oviedo-Tolentino
,
F.
,
2009
, “
An Experimental Analysis of the Flow Pattern in Heat Exchangers With an Egg Carton Configuration (Parallel, Convergent and Divergent Cases)
,”
Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow
,
30
(
1
), pp.
158
171
.
15.
Rush
,
T. A.
,
Newell
,
T. A.
, and
Jacobi
,
A. M.
,
1999
, “
An Experimental Study of Flow and Heat Transfer in Sinusoidal Wavy Passages
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer
,
42
(
9
), pp.
1541
1553
.
16.
,
B.
,
,
R.
,
Håkansson
,
L.
,
Mortensen
,
M.
,
Sudiyo
,
R.
, and
Van Wachem
,
B.
,
2011
,
Computational Fluid Dynamics for Engineers
,
Cambridge University Press
,
Cambridge, UK
Chap. 1.
17.
Chen
,
Z. J.
, and
Przekwas
,
A. J.
,
2010
, “
A Coupled Pressure-Based Computational Method for Incompressible/Compressible Flows
,”
J. Comput. Phys.
,
229
(
24
), pp.
9150
9165
.
18.
Kaya
,
F.
, and
Karagoz
,
I.
,
2008
, “
Performance Analysis of Numerical Schemes in Highly Swirling Turbulent Flows in Cyclones
,”
Curr. Sci.
,
94
(
10
), pp.
1273
1278
.
19.
Celik
,
I.
,
Ghia
,
U.
,
Roache
,
P.
, and
Christopher
,
2008
, “
Procedure for Estimation and Reporting of Uncertainty Due to Discretization in CFD Applications
,”
ASME J. Fluids Eng.
,
130
(
7
), p.
078001
.
20.
Armaly
,
B. F.
,
Durst
,
F.
,
Pereira
,
J. C. F.
, and
Schoenung
,
B.
,
1983
, “
Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of Backward-Facing Step Flow
,”
J. Fluid Mech.
,
127
(
1
), pp.
473
496
.
21.
Iwai
,
H.
,
Nakabe
,
K.
, and
Suzuki
,
K.
,
2000
, “
Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Backward-Facing Step Laminar Flow in a Rectangular Duct
,”
Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer
,
43
(
3
), pp.
457
471
.
22.
Kumar
,
H.
,
Tawhai
,
M. H.
,
Hoffman
,
E. A.
, and
Lin
,
C.-L.
,
2009
, “
The Effects of Geometry on Airflow in the Acinar Region of the Human Lung
,”
J. Biomech.
,
42
(
11
), pp.
1635
1642
.