Experimental and Numerical Study on Heat Transfer Enhancement of a Rectangular Channel with Discontinuous Crossed Ribs and Grooves

Experimental and numerical investigations have been conducted to study turbulent flow of water and heat transfer characteristics in a rectangular channel with discontinuous crossed ribs and grooves. The tests investigated the overall heat transfer performance and friction factor in ribbed and ribbed-grooved channels with rib angle of 30 degrees. The experimental results show that the overall thermo-hydraulic performance for ribbed-grooved channel is increased by 10%-13.6% when compared to ribbed channel. The investigation on the effects of different rib angles and rib pitches on heat transfer characteristics and friction factor in ribbed-grooved channel was carried out using Fluent with SST (shear-stress transport) k-omega turbulence model. The numerical results indicate that the case for rib angle of 45 degrees shows the best overall thermo-hydraulic performance, about 18%-36% higher than the case for rib angle of 0 degrees. In addition, the flow patterns and local heat transfer characteristics for ribbed and ribbed-grooved channels based on the numerical simulation were also analyzed to reveal the mechanism of heat transfer enhancement.