Flow and heat transfer characteristics of an impinging jet augmented with swirl

Jet impingement cooling techniques using conventional nozzles, round jets, and swirling jets are effective heat transfer methods extensively used for various industrial applications. This work proposes a geometrical mechanism that generates augmented swirling and round jets for enhanced heat transfer. The proposed geometry has an axial inlet port and three tangential inlet ports. The total flow is partitioned through these inlet ports using different split ratios (SR), resulting in a single augmented flow comprising swirling and round jets. The impingement heat transfer from a heated flat plate is modelled using steady 3-D RANS based numerical simulations. Also, computations for conventional round jets and swirling jets generated by an in-house developed vane-swirler are performed for the Reynolds number range of 6000-15,000, and for a range of jet-plate distance H = 1.5-4 times the jet diameter D. The optimum conditions for maximum heat transfer for various configurations of jets are presented. From this numerical study, the proposed augmented jet is found to enhance the impingement heat transfer rate at an optimal condition of split ratio (SR-4) and dimensionless jet-plate distance (H/D = 1.5) compared to conventional round jets as well as swirl jets generated by vane swirlers.