Enhancing heat transfer through the integration of vibrating blades with fin channels: Experimental and numerical insights

Abstract

The vibrating blade (VB) is a compact, energy-efficient technology that generates oscillating flow with intense vortices, holding significant potential in applications like battery thermal management. However, in relatively open spaces, some vortices induced by the vibrating blades (VBs) do not directly participate in heat transfer. In this work, the VBs were integrated with a specialized fin channel with top plate to fully utilize the oscillating flow and vortices for heat transfer enhancement. The heat transfer enhancement mechanisms were revealed through experiments, numerical simulations, and chaos analysis. The results showed that VBs in the fin channel induce more vortices to directly participate in heat transfer, promoting vortex motion and fluid mixing, which further trigger chaotic flow. The converging top plate effectively directs vortices toward the heated surface and generates high-velocity jets downstream. The wave grooved side plates induce additional secondary vortices and effectively promote the mixing of hot and cold fluids inside and outside the fin channel. Hence, the combination of VBs with a fin channel featuring a converging top plate and wave grooved side plates (TCSWG) further promotes vortex collision and breakdown, intensifies chaotic characteristics, and thereby significantly enhances heat transfer. As a result, the TCSWG reduces the heated surface temperature of VBs from 99.1 °C to 48.2 °C. More importantly, when the fin channel, VBs, and rotating fan are combined, the heated surface temperature is further reduced to 38.8 °C, while maintaining relatively low power consumption and noise levels.