A numerical analysis of fluid flow and heat transfer in wavy and curved wavy channels

In this paper, a curved wavy channel was proposed to further enhance the thermal performance of the conventional wavy channel. A three-dimensional model of the curved wavy channel was established with defining the overall curvature. The flow behavior and heat transfer in the wavy and curved wavy channels were numerically investigated under various wave amplitudes. The mechanism behind the observed phenomena was revealed by analyzing the synergy between velocity and temperature fields. The results indicated that the Nusselt numbers in curved wavy channels with amplitudes of 0.40 mm and 0.80 mm can be raised by 44.3% and 15.3% compared to those in conventional wavy channels. The parametric study showed that the flow resistance is more sensitive to the wavelength. For a given amplitude, curved wavy channels always show a better field synergy than conventional wavy channels. In addition, an inferior field synergy was observed near the suction side in both types of wavy channels, which indicates that the purposive improvement needs to apply to these locations. This study also found that the field synergy angle has limitations in characterizing the heat transfer intensity in the channel with small wavelengths. This is because that extremely chaotic flow patterns caused by small wavelengths result in a negative dot product of temperature gradient and velocity over a large area.