Numerical Investigation of Flow and Heat Transfer in Corrugated Sinusoidal Wavy Channel

A three-dimensional numerical investigation of fluid flow and heat transfer in corrugated sinusoidal wavy channels with uniform wall temperature is performed for air (Pr=0.696) in the low Reynolds numbers regime (Re=40 similar to 1000). Constant properties, periodically fully developed laminar flow and heat transfer are considered. The effects of channel plate spacing (epsilon), plate corrugation severity (gamma) and air mass flow rate (Re) on flow and heat transfer are discussed. Moreover, the analysis of influence degree of the shape factors on relevant parameters indicates that the effect of shape factor gamma is more pronounced than that of epsilon on the friction factor (f) and heat transfer coefficient Nusselt number (Nu). The f and Nu factors increase with the increases of the wave severity (.) and plate spacing (epsilon<0.375). Performance evaluation is carried out by comparison the flow area goodness factor. An optimum goodness is attained on the geometries having the smallest e or the smallest gamma. The general relations for f versus Re and shape factors are derived. The local distributions of the vorticity and the Nu are presented.