Effect of Pulsation and Acceleration of Liquid Metal Turbulent Flow Through a Horizontal Channel by Large Eddy Simulation

Abstract

Abstract Pulsation and acceleration of liquid metal turbulent flow through a horizontal channel has been numerically studied using a large eddy simulation (LES) technique. The effect of inlet pulsation and acceleration on flow and heat transfer characteristics of low Prandtl number liquid metal flow have been investigated and reported here. Results have been presented for different Reynolds numbers, different amplitudes, and frequency with constant bottom wall thickness. The flow field is modeled as unsteady-state two-dimensional incompressible turbulent-forced convection flow. Turbulence is modeled using a LES technique. Two-dimensional unsteady-state heat conduction equation is solved to know the temperature distribution in the solid region. Finite difference method solver is developed for solving the governing equations using sixth-order accuracy of compact schemes. The average Nusselt number shows cyclic variation with respect to time in pulsation flows. The enhancement of heat transfer with pulsation at amplitude 0.4 and frequency 100 Hz is 6.51%. The rate of heat transfer increases in pulsation flow compared to quasi-steady flow. The inlet acceleration shows a significant effect on flow characteristics. The present results are compared with direct numerical simulation (DNS) results available in the literature and matching well with DNS data.