Heat exchange at laminar flow in rectangular channels

Abstract

Numerical modeling of heat exchange at a laminar stationary and pulsatile flow in rectangular channels with different aspect ratios of side lengths γ has been carried out by a finite difference method for two boundary conditions: a constant wall temperature and a constant heat flux density on the wall. For the boundary condition of the first kind, the similarity of distributions of the heat flux density and shear stress on the walls over the channel perimeter has been established. The reasons for a nonmonotonous dependence of the initial thermal interval length on γ are discussed. For the boundary condition of the second kind, the difference of the Nusselt number averaged over the perimeter at γ → 0 from its value for a flow in a flat channel has been explained. An increase in the Nusselt number averaged over the perimeter and the period of oscillations has been revealed for a pulsatile flow in the quasi-stationary regime at large amplitudes of the oscillations of the velocity averaged over the cross section.