Numerical simulation of heat transfer at an array of co-planar slat-like surfaces oriented normal to a forced convection flow

Numerical study of the per-slat heat transfer coefficient was made for an array of co-planar slat-like surfaces which face upstream into an oncoming airflow. The flow washes over the slats as it passes into slot-like gaps between the slats. The computations were performed for several different slat-slot configurations characterized by the ratio of the slot-slat width to the slat width (P/W), the Reynolds number varied from 500 to 7000, and the range of Prandtl number was 0.7-10. Based on the SIMPLER algorithm and the central difference scheme (CDS), parametric studies on the effects of the Reynolds number, P/W and the Prandtl number were performed. Numerical results agree well with the test results for mass transfer (Sc = 2.5). From the numerical results, a general heat transfer correlation was obtained which covers the following range of parameters: 500≤Re≤7000, 1.25≤P/W≤5, 0.7≤Pr≤10.