Flow and thermal characteristics produced by a curved rectangular winglet vortex generator in a channel

Three-dimensional numerical computations are performed to investigate the performance of curved winglets mounted on a rectangular channel. The concave and convex shapes of curved rectangular winglet vortex generators (RWVGs) are named according to flow facing surface. Curvature of winglet mainly depends on arc angle, radius of curvature, arc length and chord length. Present study investigates the influence of arc angle variation of curved RWVG on flow and thermal characteristics for fixed chord length. Arc length and radius of curvature of curved RWVG vary according to arc angle. With the help of streaklines plots and iso-Q surfaces, flow behavior around the curved RWVG has been investigated. Heat transfer enhancement of curved RWVGs has been examined by using the dimensionless parameters surface-averaged Nusselt number, while pressure loss is estimated by friction factor. The overall thermohydraulic performance of curved RWVGs is inspected by thermal performance factor. Investigations of secondary flow intensity are carried out to understand its impact on heat transfer mechanism. From the investigation of secondary flow, it is observed that secondary flow provides a supplement to the traditional method of analyzing heat transfer performance.