Flow and Heat Transfer Behaviors in a Two-Pass Rotating Channel with Rib Turbulators Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

The flow and heat transfer characteristics of three rib geometries: 90 degrees, V-60 degrees, and broken V-60 degrees in a two-pass rotating square channel have been numerically studied. In this study, the ratio of channel length, rib height, rib pitch, and channel radius was all set to 8, 0.1, 10, and 5, respectively. The rotation number was varied from 0 to 0.3 under the Reynolds number of 10,000. The Reynolds stress model was used for calculations. The majority of the heat transfer enhancement on the trailing side (TS) was larger than on the leading side (LS) in the 1st passage, while the enhancement on the TS in the 2nd passage was much lower when compared to the LS. The enhancement in the case of broken V-60 degrees ribs was about 4.1% greater than the enhancement in the case of V-60 degrees and 90 degrees ribs of about 35.2% and 68.9% for without ribs, respectively. However, the enhanced heat transfer came at the expense of a higher-pressure penalty. V-60 degrees ribs had a friction factor that was 5.7% greater than broken V-60 degrees ribs, 13.7% higher than 90 degrees ribs, and 70.5% higher than without ribs. Broken V-60 degrees ribs gave the best overall performance of the designs examined.