Computation of enhanced turbulent heat transfer in a channel with periodic ribs

Abstract This study evaluates low Reynolds number models of turbulence for numerical computations on the heat transfer and fluid flow behavior in a rectangular channel with streamwise-periodic ribs mounted on one of the principal walls. The models include kÿ ~ " models of Launder and Sharma (1974), Chien (1982), kÿ ~ " model of Lin and Hwang (1998), Wilcox's kÿ ! model (Wilcox, 1994) and Durbin's model kÿ "ÿ v (Durbin, 1995). The numerical results show that all these models can predict the flowfield reasonably well, and the inclusion of the Yap term (Yap, 1987) in the " ± equation (or ~ " ± equation) can further improve the prediction in these kÿ " models, kÿ ~ " model and kÿ "ÿ v model. However, these models behave differently in heat transfer computations. The kÿ ! model leads to too low a level of heat transfer and turbulence. Among these kÿ " models and the kÿ ~ " model, Lin's model with the Yap term predicts the heat transfer level best. Durbin's model with extra v2; f equations and the Yap term exhibits further improvement.