Thermal-Hydraulic Performance Enhancement by the Combination of Rectangular Winglet Pair and V-Shaped Dimples

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents numerical study on heat transfer enhancement due to the combination of rectangular winglet pair with V-dimples in an array-type arrangement. Array of rectangular winglet pairs results in heat transfer enhancement, however, at a cost of significant pressure drop, resulting in reduced thermal-hydraulic performance (THP). On the other hand, dimples are associated with lower heat transfer enhancement levels at relatively lower pumping power penalty. To this end, a combination of rectangular winglet pair and V-shaped dimples has been studied in this paper, where the arrangements were intended to achieve enhanced thermal-hydraulic performance. Three different configurations, namely, rectangular winglet pair, rectangular winglet pair with one V-dimple between two consecutive winglets, and rectangular winglet pair with two V-dimples packed in a pitch, are studied here. The variation of heat transfer enhancement, pressure drop gain, and THP with respect to winglet-to-winglet (S) spacing variation for rectangular winglet pair and rectangular winglet pair with one V-dimple configuration is presented at a Reynolds number of 25,000. The THP of the rectangular winglet pair configuration decreases up to S/H equal to 2.5 and then increases (H: channel height). For rectangular winglet pair with one V-dimple, three values of winglet-to-dimple (P) spacings are analyzed. For fixed S/H, the highest P/H configuration provided highest heat transfer enhancement and THP. Among the three configurations studied, rectangular winglet pair with two V-dimples resulted in the highest thermal-hydraulic performance.