Experimental and numerical study of turbulent heat transfer in twisted square ducts

This paper describes the experimental and numerical study of three mildly twisted square ducts (twisted uniform cross section square duct, twisted divergent square duct and twisted convergent square duct). Experiments are conducted for air with uniform heat flux condition. Measurements are also conducted for a straight untwisted square duct for comparison purpose. Numerical simulations are performed for three-dimensional and fully elliptic flow and heat transfer by using a body-fitted finite volume method and standard k-ε turbulence model. Both experimental and numerical results show that the twisting brings about a special variation pattern of the spanwise distribution of the local heat transfer coefficient, while the divergent and convergent shapes lead to different axial local heat transfer distributions. Based on the test data, the thermal performance comparisons are made under three constraints (identical mass flow rate, identical pumping power and identical pressure drop) with straight untwisted square duct as a reference. Comparisons show that the twisted divergent duct can always enhance heat transfer, the twisted convergent duct always deteriorates heat transfer, and the twisted constant cross section duct is somewhat in between.