Heat transfer and pressure loss in narrow channels with corrugated walls

Abstract

The convective heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics in corrugated channels were experimentally investigated. Experiments were performed on channels of uniform wall temperature and of fixed corrugation ratio, gamma (2A/L=0.2) over a range of Reynolds number, 3220 lesReles9420. Corrugated channels of 0deg, 90deg and 180deg phase shift and with different spacing are considered. The effects of these geometrical parameters on the heat transfer and pressure drop are discussed. The obtained results showed a significant heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop penalty associated with corrugated channels. The average heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops exceeded by about 2.6 to 3.2 and 1.9 to 2.6 times those for parallel plate channel, respectively, depending upon both the spacing and phase shift. The effect of spacing variations on heat transfer and pressure drop was more pronounced than that of phase shift variation, especially at high Reynolds number. Comparing results of the tested channels by considering the flow area goodness factor (j/f), it was better for corrugated flow channel with geometrical parameters of 2 les epsiv les 3, and Phi les 90deg.