Multiple flow patterns and heat transfer in confined jet impingement

The flow field of a 2-D laminar confined impinging slot jet is investigated. Numerical results indicate that there exist two different solutions in some range of geometric and flow parameters. The two steady flow patterns are obtained under identical boundary conditions but only with different initial flow fields. Two different exit boundary conditions are investigated with two commercial software packages to eliminate artificial or computational effects. The different flow patterns are observed to significantly affect the heat transfer. A flow visualization experiment is carried out to verify the computational results and both flow patterns are observed. The bifurcation mechanism is interpreted and discussed.