Local Heat Transfer Distribution in a Rotating Serpentine Rib-Roughened Flow Passage

Abstract

Experiments are performed to determine the local heat transfer performance in a rotating serpentine passage with rib-roughened surfaces. The ribs are placed on the trailing and leading walls in a corresponding posited arrangement with an angle of attack of 90 deg. The rib height-to-hydraulic diameter ratio, e/Dh, is 0.0787 and the rib pitch-to-height ratio, s/e, is 11. The throughflow Reynolds number is varied, typically at 23,000, 47,000, and 70,000 in the passage both at rest and in rotation. In the rotation cases, the rotation number is varied from 0.023 to 0.0594. Results for the rib-roughened serpentine passages are compared with those of smooth ones in the literature. Comparison is also made on results for the rib-roughened passages between the stationary and rotating cases. It is disclosed that a significant enhancement is achieved in the heat transfer in both the stationary and rotating cases resulting from an installation of the ribs. Both the rotation and Rayleigh numbers play important roles in the heat transfer performance on both the trailing and leading walls. Although the Reynolds number strongly influences the Nusselt numbers in the rib-roughened passage of both the stationary and rotating cases, Nuo and Nu, respectively, it has little effect on their ratio Nu/Nuo.