Abstract:
A numerical investigation of turbulent forced convection and heat transfer characteristics in a twodimensional
rectangular channel with transverse ribs is carried out in the present work. The bottom wall formed
by heated ribs of rectangular section is subject to a uniform heat flux condition, whereas the upper wall is
thermally insulated. The effect of turbulence models is studied by utilizing three models: the standard k-ε, the
Renormalized Group (RNG) k– ε , and shear stress transport (SST) k-ɷ. The numerical approach is based on the
finite volume method and the SIMPLE algorithm has been adopted for the discretization of the pressure–velocity
terms. The Fluent CFD code is used in this work. The fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics are presented
for Reynolds number fixed at 9.4×104. The effects of geometry parameters, as well as characteristics of the
turbulent forced convection flow through the ribs and in to the rectangular channel, are analyzed in detail. The
predicted results from using three turbulence models reveal that the standard k−ε turbulence model generally
provides better agreement as compared to the others
