Turbulent Separated Convection Flow Adjacent to Backward-Facing Step-Effects of Step Height

Abstract

Simulations of turbulent convection flow adjacent to a two-dimensional backward-facing step are presented to explore the effects of step height on turbulent separated flow and heat transfer. Reynolds number and duct's height downstream from the step are kept constant at Re0 = 28,000 and H = 0.19 m, respectively. Uniform and constant heat flux of qw = 270 W/m2 is specified at the stepped wall downstream from the step, while other walls are treated as adiabatic. The selection of the values for these parameters is motivated by the fact that measurements are available for this geometry and they can be used to validate the flow and heat transfer simulation code. Two-equation low-Reynolds-number model is employed to achieve the turbulent Prandtl number. The primary and secondary recirculation regions increase in size as the step height increases. The bulk temperature increases more rapidly as the step height increases. Increasing the step height causes the magnitude of the maximum turbulent kinetic energy to increase. Near the step and below the step height, the turbulent kinetic energy becomes smaller as the step height increases. Inside the recirculation region, magnitude of the peak friction coefficient does not significantly change with the increase of step height. The friction coefficient becomes smaller in magnitude with the increase of the step height. The peak Stanton number becomes smaller as the step height increases.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Sponsor(s)

United States. Army Research Office
National Supercomputing Center for Energy and the Environment
United States. Department of Energy

Keywords and Phrases

Prandtl Number; Reynolds Number; Stanton Number; Backward-Facing Step; Convection Flow; Friction Coefficient; Step Height

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0017-9310

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2006 Elsevier, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Sep 2006

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