The Online Journal on Power and Energy Engineering (OJPEE) Vol. (1) – No.

(3)

Numerical Analysis of Heat Transfer and

Pressure Drop in a Channel Equipped with
Triangular Bodies in Side-By-Side Arrangement
E. Manay
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Bayburt University, Bayburt, Turkey

S. Gunes, E.Akcadirci and V.Ozceyhan

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey

Abstract-The focus of presented numerical study is to in side-by-side arrangement. There are many studies about
investigate the effect of Reynolds number with respect to bluff bodies and the detailed literature review is given below.
both heat transfer and flow characteristics in a channel Y. Du et al.[1] investigated numerically the effect of the
equipped with two triangular bluff bodies in side by side gap ratio of triangular bodies over flow characteristics for
arrangement. (SST) k-  turbulence model is used for different gap ratios varying from 0.12 to 0.48 at Re=470,000.
simulations and the second order upwind numerical For confirming the observations from numerical study,
scheme and SIMPLE (pressure implicit with splitting of experimental results using point-to-point method and particle-
operations) algorithm are utilized to discretize the image velocimetry (PIV) measurements in a close wind
governing equations. The flow is assumed two- tunnel were also carried out. In this study, two types of
dimensional and the calculations are performed for a coherent structure are identified: Low gap ratio 0.12 and
Reynolds number range varying from 10,000 to 40,000 High gap ratio 0.22-0.48. The coherent structure is divided by
under steady state conditions. The calculations are carried the gap flow into two zones called the primary recirculation
out on a four-noded structured mesh near channel wall zone and the secondary recirculation zone. Results showed
and a three-noded unstructured mesh near triangular that the structure of small gap ratio is different from that of
bodies in order to have a better description of the large gap ratio because the interaction between two zones
boundary layer. The variation of Nusselt number, skin relates to the gap ratio. The flow characteristics of wake and
friction coefficient along the channel and Nusselt number base-bleed flow downstream of two bodies, with different
versus Reynolds number were presented. The calculations cross-sectional geometries in side by side arrangement were
are also compared to the results obtained by H. studied by C.-Y. Wei and J.-R. Chang [2]. The two-body
Chattopadhyay. The comparison shows that the arrangements were comprised of flat plate and square
numerical results are of good agreement with the results cylinder, flat plate and circular cylinder, and square cylinder
obtained from that of Chattopadhyay, H. It was and circular cylinder. The results demonstrated that the
concluded that at Re=40,000 the best achievement in characteristics of wake and base-bleed flow are significantly
Nusselt number was obtained as 463. related to the cross-sectional geometries of the bluff body.
The gap flow tended to deflect toward the narrow-wake side
Keywords-Triangular bluff body, side-by-side downstream of the two body arrangement. L. Jian-zhong and
arrangement, heat transfer enhancement. his friends [3] analyzed the modification of flow by the
combined effects of the rotation and the Reynolds number on
I. INTRODUCTION the flow past two rotating circular cylinders in a side-by-side-
arrangement. The analysis were performed using Particle
Bluff bodies are generally used to promote turbulence in Image Velocimetry (PIV) at a range of 425 ≤ Re ≤1130,
channels by disturbing the flow. The studies over bluff bodies 0≤α≤4 at one gap spacing ratio. The results showed that the
mainly consist of cylinders, flat plates, rectangular bars. The vortex shedding was suppressed as rotational speed increased.
flow around bluff bodies has been the subject of many studies The flow reached a steady state when the vortex shedding for
in the past. Flow interference caused by bluff bodies placed both cylinders was completely suppressed at critical rotational
into the channel is responsible for several changes in the speed. H. Chattopadhyay [4] studied in the turbulent flow
characteristics of heat transfer and flow. As known, there are regime up to the Reynolds number of 40,000 As a result, it
several coherent structures for different applications was reported that the existence of a triangular body in a
according to many kinds of sizes, shapes, flow patterns, etc. channel provides approximately 15% heat transfer
respectively. In this study, to examine the effects of body enhancement.
geometry placed into the channel, dual triangles are studied. The interaction among two spheres in tandem formation
The studies made in this field showed that lots of parameters were studied for a Reynolds number of 300 using both steady
like geometry and geometrical arrangements are also affected and pulsating inflow conditions by L. Prahl et al. [5]. The
on heat transfer and flow structure. This paper presents a results showed that the separation distance played a
detailed numerical study of the flow about a pair of triangles significant role in changing the flow patterns and shedding
frequencies at moderate separation distances, whereas effect

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The Online Journal on Power and Energy Engineering (OJPEE) Vol. (1) – No. (3)

on drag was observed even at a separation distance of 12 numerical scheme and SIMPLE algorithm being more stable
diameters. The effect of aspect ratio on heat transfer to a and economical in comparison with the other algorithms are
cylinder in cross flow of air has been studied experimentally utilized to discretize the governing equations. The converging
by B.H. Chang et al. [6]. They reported that the heat transfer criterions are thought as 10-6 for the energy and 10−4 for other
rates increased with decreasing aspect ratio at the centerplane parameters. In momentum and continuity equations, the
on the rear of the cylinder. Consequently, the average Nusselt thermophysical properties are thought as constant, and, the
number correlations are presented that account for the effects flow is assumed two-dimensional, steady continuity.
of aspect ratio, tunnel blockage and free stream turbulence.
Continuity conservation:
Based on the results summarized above, one finds that the
 
relationship between Reynolds number and the biasing      v   0 (1)
characteristic of the gap flow depends strongly on the t
geometry of the bluff body. Because many practical Momentum conservation:

   v 
engineering problems are related to the flow field downstream
 
of bluff bodies with different cross-sectional geometries, the      v  v  
present study focused on flow interaction near two triangular t (2)

bluff bodies in side by side arrangement and was performed g  P     
for a Reynolds number range varying from 10,000 to 40,000
under steady state conditions. Energy conservation:
  E  
   v  E  p  
II. CFD ANALYSIS t (3)
 
Problem Description   k eff T   eff  v 
Where
In Figure 1, the main features of the test rig domain are
    
    v  v T     v I 
shown schematically. The computational domain mainly
 2
(4)
consists of two-dimensional channel and dual triangular  3 
bodies placed in side by side arrangement. As seen in Figure
v2P
1, channel height (H) of 4B, the placement of the bluff bodies E  h  (5)
(S) was maintained at x = 8B, while the channel length was  2
36B. For preventing from the negative pressure effects at the
outlet sections, the inlet section was selected long enough to and k eff is the effective conductivity.
get a fully developed flow. F.R. Menter [7] developed the shear-stress transport (SST)
k– model by blending k– model and k- model
formulation effectively. In literature, there exist various
numerical studies concerning with channel flow which are
performed by using (SST) k-  turbulence model (S. Eiamsa-
ard and P. Promvonge [8], Kamali and Binesh [10].
Nasiruddin and Siddiqui [11] investigated the heat transfer
enhancement in a heat exchanger tube by installing a baffle
numerically and he reported the (SST) k-  model predicts
Figure (1): Computational domain and the triangular bodies in succesfully and accurately the flow modification due to the
side by side arrangement. baffle according to other turbulent models. The (SST) k- 
model is able to calculate speedly two-dimensional flow and
Numerical Procedure also predict the interactions with the wall. This model is also
advantageous because the model equations behave compatible
For determining the velocity and temperature distributions, in both the near-wall and far-field regions.
CFD calculations made by the aid of the computational fluid In the derivation of the k– model, the flow is assumed to
dynamics (CFD) commercial code of FLUENT version 6.1.22 be fully turbulent. The Shear-Stress Transport (SST) k-
[9] are performed depending on the numerical model, model, the turbulence kinetic energy, k, and the specific
boundary conditions, assumptions, and numerical values. In dissipation rate, , are obtained from the following transport
all the numerical calculations, segregated manner was equations:
selected as solver type, due to its advantage which helps to
prevent from convergence problems and oscillations in
pressure and velocity fields of strong coupling between the
velocity and pressure by using. (SST) k-  turbulence model
is used for simulations and the second orderupwind

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The Online Journal on Power and Energy Engineering (OJPEE) Vol. (1) – No. (3)

 
 
Uniform velocity is imposed to inlet plane and the Reynolds
(ρk)  kui  number varies from 10000 to 40000. The outlet boundary
t xi condition is natural condition which implies zero-gradient
(6)
  k  conditions at the outlet.
k   Gk  Yk
x j  x  III. RESULTS
 j 
and In this work, the used numerical method to obtain results is
 
(ρ)  u i   validated with the study of Chattopadhyay [9] in which the
t xi augmentation of heat transfer in a channel using a single
(7) triangular prism is investigated. The results of Nusselt
    number and skin friction coefficient obtained from CFD
    G  Y  D
x j  x  analyses are compared with the results obtained from
 j  Chattopadhyay [9]. Figures 2(a) and 2(b) show comparison
In these equations, Gk represents the generation of between the results of the used CFD model and
turbulence kinetic energy due to mean velocity gradients. G Chattopadhyay [9]. As observed from these figures that, there
represents the generation of . k and  represent the is a good agreement between the results of the used numerical
effective diffusivity of k and , respectively. Yk and Y model and Chattopadhyay [9]. These results give confidence
that the numerical method used is accurate.
represent the dissipation of k and  due to turbulence and D
represents the cross-diffusion term. The calculation of all of
the above terms is given detailed in FLUENT 6.1.22 [9].
Two parameters of interest for this study are the skin
friction coefficient and the Nusselt number. The skin friction
coefficient Cf is defined by
s
Cf  (8)
1
U m2
2
The heat transfer performance is evalauted by Nusselt
number which can be obtained by the local temperature
gradient as:
T
Nu   (9)
Z
The average Nusselt number can be calculated as follows:
(a)
x
Nu av   Nu x (10)
L
where L is the length of computational domain. The friction
factor is determined from;
P
f= (11)
1 L
 .U m 2
2 H
in which pressure ΔP is pressure difference between the
channel inlet and exit:

Boundary Conditions

The solution domain of the considered 2D channel flow is

geometrically quite simple, which is a rectangle on the x–z
plane, enclosed by the inlet, outlet and wall boundaries. The
working fluid in all cases is water. The inlet temperature of
water is considered to be uniform at 300 K. On walls, no-slip (b)
conditions are used for the momentum equations. A constant Figure (2): The comparison of CFD values with
surface temperature of 400 K is applied to the bottom wall of Chattopadhyay [4] at Re=20000 (a) Local Nusselt Number,
the channel. The upper wall is assumed to be adiabatic. (b) Local skin friction coefficient.

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The Online Journal on Power and Energy Engineering (OJPEE) Vol. (1) – No. (3)

The distribution of local Nusselt number along the channel On the other hand, as expected, these bodies cause a
length is shown for different Re numbers is illustrated in significant fluid friction as well, in comparison with the
Fig. 3. The local Nusselt number takes a local maximum at smooth channel. The increase in local Nusselt number results
the placed position of the upstream body. After the peak in an increase in pressure drop, the friction factor increases
towards to the exit the Nusselt number decreases strongly due with increasing Reynolds number due to the fact that
the effect of the periodically shedding vortices do not occur interaction between the bodies placed as side by side disturb
from the bodies for all cases. Separated shear layer from the entire flow field and cause more friction than the smooth
downstream body and impinging of vortex formed from channel. The local skin friction coefficient distributions on
upstream body strongly increases heat transfer on the bottom channel wall are shown in Figure 4 for different
downstream. Reynolds numbers. Similarly with local Nusselt number, the
local skin friction coefficient takes a maximum at the placed
position of the triangular bodies in side by side arrangement.
In Fig. 4, the local distribution of the skin friction coefficient
for smooth channel, Re=10000 is also shown for comparison.
The magnitude of skin friction is the highest at Re=40000. It
is evident from Figure 4 that the local skin friction coefficient
increases with increasing Reynolds number when the flow
encounters the blockages created by equilateral triangular
bodies.

IV. CONCLUSIONS

The local Nusselt number and skin friction coefficient take

a local maximum at the placed position of the upstream body,
and at the placed position of the downstream body. The heat
transfer enhances especially for upstream flow region
Figure (3): The distribution of local Nusselt number along the concerning with the generation of vortices due to the first
channel length for different Reynols numbers. body as well as the role of turbulence in better mixing brings
in the enhancement in heat transfer from the channel wall.
However, the peak becomes obvious with increasing The increase in local Nusselt number results in an increase in
Reynolds number. As expected local Nusselt number pressure drop, the friction factor increases with decreasing
increases with increasing Reynolds number ,and , the heat spacing between the bodies due to the fact that the close
transfer enhances especially for upstream flow region interaction between the bodies disturb the entire flow field
concerning with the generation of vortices due to the and cause more friction.
triangular bodies as well as the role of turbulence in better
mixing brings in the enhancement in heat transfer from the V. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
channel wall.
Authors would like to thank for the financial support of the
TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research
Council of Turkey) under the contract: 107M508.

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The Online Journal on Power and Energy Engineering (OJPEE) Vol. (1) – No. (3)

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Reference Number: W09-0019 89