Experimental and numerical investigation of transition to turbulent flow and heat transfer inside a horizontal smooth rectangular duct under uniform bottom surface temperature

Abstract

In this study, steady-state turbulent forced flow and heat transfer in a horizontal smooth rectangular duct both experimentally and numerically investigated. The study was carried out in the transition to turbulence region where Reynolds numbers range from 2,323 to 9,899. Flow is hydrodynamically and thermally developing (simultaneously developing flow) under uniform bottom surface temperature condition. A commercial CFD program Ansys Fluent 12.1 with different turbulent models was used to carry out the numerical study. Based on the present experimental data and three-dimensional numerical solutions, new engineering correlations were presented for the heat transfer and friction coefficients in the form of and , respectively. The results have shown that as the Reynolds number increases heat transfer coefficient increases but Darcy friction factor decreases. It is seen that there is a good agreement between the present experimental and numerical results. Examination of heat and mass transfer in rectangular cross-sectioned duct for different duct aspect ratio (alpha) was also carried out in this study. Average Nusselt number and average Darcy friction factor were expressed with graphics and correlations for different duct aspect ratios.