Numerical Investigation of Heat Transfer Enhancement by Plain and Curved Winglet Type Vertex Generators

Numerical simulations were carried out to investigate the performance of plane and curved rectangular winglet type vortex generators (VGs). Effects of shape of the VGs on heat transfer enhancement were evaluated using dimensionless numbers - j/j0, f/f0 and h =(j/j0)/(f/f0). The results showed that curved winglet type VGs have better heat transfer enhancement than plain winglet type in both laminar and turbulent flow regions. The flow resistance is also lower in case of curved winglet type than corresponding plane winglet VGs. The best results for heat transfer enhancement is obtained at high Reynolds number values (Re > 10000) by using VGs. The processes in solving the simulation consist of modeling and meshing the basic geometry of rectangular channel with VGs using the package ANSYS ICEM CFD 14.0.Then the boundary condition will be set according to the experimental data available from the literature. Finally result has been examined in CFD-Post. This work presents a numerically study on the mean Nusselt number, friction factor and heat enhancement characteristics in a rectangular channel having a pair of winglet type VGs under uniform heat flux of 416.67 W/m2. The results indicate the advantages of using curved winglet VGs for heat transfer enhancement.