Details on the Hydrothermal Characteristics within a Solar-Channel Heat-Exchanger Provided with Staggered T-Shaped Baffles

Abstract

Details on the hydrothermal characteristics of turbulent flows in a solar channel heat exchanger (CHE) are highlighted. The device has transverse T-shaped vortex generators (VGs). Two staggered VGs (baffles) are inserted on the lower and upper walls of the CHE. The working fluid is Newtonian and incompressible, with constant physical properties. The ANSYS Fluent 17.0 is utilized in this survey. The second-order upwind and QUICK schemes were utilized to perform the discretization of pressure and convective terms, respectively. The SIMPLE algorithm was employed to achieve the speed-pressure coupling. The residual target 10−9 was selected as a convergence criterion. The effects of the T-VGs’ geometrical shape and Reynolds numbers were inspected. At the baffle level, the wall effect was augmented due to the reduction of the passage area of flows, which is estimated here to be 55%, resulting thus in a considerable resistance to the movement of fluid particles. The thermal distribution is highly dependent on the flow structures within the CHE. Since the fluid agitation yields an enhanced mixing, it allows thus an excellent heat transfer. The most considerable rates of thermal transfer were obtained with high Re, which resulted from the intensified mixing of fluid particles through the formation of recirculation cells and the interaction with the walls of the T-VGs and the CHE. The T-baffles with intense flow rates yielded negative turbulent speeds and intensify the fluid agitation, which improves the thermal exchange rates.

Effect of the Spacing Design of Two Alternate Baffles on the Performance of Heat Exchangers

“…In figure 9, the curves of the variation of the average Nusselt number (Nu) as a function of the Reynolds number are represented. First, we compared the results calculated by our model with those calculated by a study carried out by Dittus-Boelter [43], Medjahed et al [44], and Menni et al [45] in the case of a smooth channel. We could then observe that our results are in good agreement with those presented by the authors [43,45].…”

Cooling of Heated Blocks with Triangular Guide Protrusions Simulating Printed Circuit Boards

“…In recent years, the heat transfer capability of nanofluids with and without extended surfaces has been investigated extensively [20][21][22][23]. However, research on passive cooling methods with extended surfaces continues [24,25].…”