Numerical investigation and performance analyses of rectangular mini channel with different types of ribs and their arrangements

An investigation of a three-dimensional rectangular minichannel with different types of longitudinal vortex generators, (rectangular and trapezoidal) which are considered as ribs along the channel, is carried out. Five different models with different angles of attack and height of ribs have been designed and studied numerically for analyzing the heat transfer and overall performance of the channel in single-phase laminar flow. The results indicate that the configurations with the attack angles of 60° have the best heat transfer performance. An augmentation for heat transfer performance improves with the increase of rib's height and the Reynolds number in the channel, however, flow resistance increases in return. Minichannels with both rectangular and trapezoidal ribs have better results for heat transfer and flow performance in comparison to a minichannel with rectangular ribs only. The model with all trapezoidal ribs leads to best overall performance due to its better flow performance, which is a crucial factor in the overall efficiency. The overall performance of the minichannel enhanced by 52.7% for the case “M3” in comparison with the smooth channel.