Numerical investigation of flow and heat transfer in communicating converging and diverging channels

Abstract

Fluid flow and heat transfer in communicating converging and diverging channel has been numerically investigated. Channels are assumed to be at constant wall temperature and the flow is assumed to be steady state and incompressible. Since the flow and temperature fields to repeat periodically after a certain developing length, periodic boundary conditions are used for the calculations. Finite volume method is used to solve the governing differential equations numerically. Computations are performed for different values of the plate angles and Reynolds numbers. Moreover, velocity distributions along the flow field are illustrated. It was found that the converging- diverging channels destroy the boundary layer significantly and Nusselt number is found to be about 400% higher than those of parallel plate channels, whereas due to vortex formation, pressure drop increases also.