CONVECTIVE FLOW AND HEAT-TRANSFER IN A CHANNEL CONTAINING MULTIPLE HEATED OBSTACLES

The present work details the numerical simulation of forced convective , incompressible flow in a channel with an array of heated obstacles a ttached to one wall. Three levels of !Nusselt numbers are emphasized i n this systematic analysis: local distributions along the obstacle exp osed faces, mean values for individual faces, and overall obstacle mea n values. This study details the effects of variations in the obstacle height, width, spacing, and number, along with the obstacle thermal c onductivity, fluid flow rare, and heating method, to illustrate import ant fundamental and practical results. The periodicity of the mean Nus selt number is established, relative to the ninth obstacle, at the 5% and 10% difference levels (eighth and seventh obstacles, respectively) . The periodic behavior of the velocity components and temperature dis tributions are also explicitly demonstrated for the array. Extensive p resentation and evaluation of the mean Nusselt numb;:rs for all obstac les within the array is fully documented. The results pave the way for different applications involving multiple heated obstacles. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.All rights reserved.