Enhancing Compound Heat Transfer with Rectangular Winglet Vortex Generators and Sudden Expansion Channels Using Water as the Working Fluid

Abstract

Heat transfer is an essential and inevitable process that pertains to every activity of our day-to-day life, including household heating and cooling equipment, electric power generation, thermal management of electronic equipment and many more. Compound heat transfer augmentation is currently of particular interest, as several techniques are employed simultaneously to get an augmentation superior to the individual methods working separately. The heat transfer rate could be improved if the stagnant fluid layer within the laminar sub-layer is set into motion. Transverse vortices or primary recirculation region induced by sudden expansion and longitudinal vortices or secondary flow imparted by winglet vortex generators (VG) are the critical factors employed in this current investigation to demolish the laminar sub-layer. Rectangular winglet VG has been considered along with sudden expansion channel and water being working fluid, as its ability to augment heat transfer rate is substantially large compared to other winglet VG like trapezoidal and delta winglet VG.