A Numerical Study of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics in Channels with Staggered Wavy Walls

Abstract

A two-dimensional steady developing fluid flow and heat transfer through a periodic wavy channel with staggered walls is studied numerically for a fluid with a Prandlt number of 0.7 and compared to flow through the corresponding wavy channel with nonstaggered walls. The lower wall is displaced relative to the upper wall by one-fourth, one-half, and three-fourths of the total one-module length. Sinusoidal and arc-shaped configurations are studied for a fixed set of geometric parameters. Periodically fully developed flow is attained downstream of the first module of the 10 modules considered in this study. Sinusoidal channels with one-half displacement provide lower normalized pressure drop values when compared to all other channels (staggered and nonstaggered) considered in this study. The module average Nusselt number increases monotonically with Reynolds number. Moreover, the heat transfer enhancement ratio for arc-shaped channels with three-fourths displacement is as high as 5.7%.