A Numerical Study on Heat Transfer in the Channel with Delta Winglet Pair Vortex Generators

In this study, the effect of the vortex generators on the heat transfer and flow characteristics in a rectangular channel is investigated numerically by finite volume method. The governing equations are discretized using QUICK scheme. The numerical results are validated against published experimental data. In this paper, the effects of the winglet aspect ratio and the distance between the vertices of the winglets on the heat transfer and hydrodynamic characteristics of the flow are surveyed. In addition, to achieve the optimum amount of heat transfer, it is important to know the proper arrangement of the triangular winglet pairs as well as their suitable position. Therefore, the appropriate values of the longitudinal and transverse pitch are presented in this paper. The results show that the winglet with the aspect ratio of 1.75 has the best thermal and hydrodynamic performance. Furthermore, the transverse pitch of 1.24 causes 6.5% growth in the average Nusselt number.