Investigation of the thermo-hydraulic behavior of the fluid flow over a square ribbed channel

The thermo-hydraulic behavior of the air flow over a two dimensional ribbed channel wasnumerically investigated in various rib-width ratio configurations (B/H=0.5-1.75) atdifferent Reynolds numbers, ranging from 6000 to 18000. The capability of differentturbulence models, including standard k-ε, RNG k-ε, standard k-ω, and SST k-ω, inpredicting the heat transfer rate was compared with the experimental results and it wasshowed that the k-ε turbulent models best adapt with the measured data. Four mainparameters, namely, the Nusselt number, friction factor, skin friction factor, and the thermalenhancement factor were examined through the simulations. Results indicate that anincrease in the Reynolds number caused the Nusselt number to increase and the frictionfactor to drop. It was found that the thermal enhancement factor augmented by an increasein the Reynolds number, and also, for a wider rib, i.e. at the higher the B/H ratio, a lowerthermal enhancement factor was obtained.