HEAT-TRANSFER IN A 3-DIMENSIONAL CHANNEL WITH BAFFLES

A numerical investigation of laminar forced convective heat transfer w as performed in a three-dimensional channel with baffles in which a un iform heat flux was applied to the top and bottom walls, and the sidew alls were considered adiabatic. The trade-off between heat transfer en hancement and pressure drop produced by the baffles was studied for pe riodically fully developed flow (PDF). The numerical analysis was perf ormed using a finite volume approach. The computer code was validated against the experimental results of Goldstein and Kreid [1] and Beaver s et al. [2] for a three-dimensional channel without baffles. Parametr ic runs were made for Reynolds numbers of 150, 250, 354 and 450 for ba ffle height to channel width ratios (H/D-y) of 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, and 0.8. Heat transfer behavior was studied for Prandtl numbers of 0.7 and 7.0 and for wall thermal conductivity to fluid thermal conductivity ratio s (K) of 1, 10 100 and 1000.