Abstract
The present study numerically investigates the flow and heat transfer characteristics of rib-induced secondary flow in a cooling channel with staggered V-shaped ribs, extruded on both walls. The rib-height-to-hydraulic diameter ration (h/$D_h$) is 0.17; the rib pitch-to-height ratio (p/h) equals 2.8; the Reynolds number is 50,000. Shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model is used as a turbulence closure. The present results are compared with those for a continuous V-shaped rib. Computational results show that, for average heat transfer rate the staggered V-shaped rib gives about 2.5 times higher values than the continuous V-shaped rib, while, for the streamwise pressure drop the former gives about 5 times higher values than the latter. Consequently, for the thermal performances, based on the equal pumping power condition, the staggered one gives about 2 times higher values than the continuous one. Also, for the staggered V-shaped rib, complex secondary flow patterns are generated in the duct due to the snaking flow in the streamwise direction, and more uniform heat transfer distributions are obtained.
