Flow structure, heat transfer and pressure drop in varying aspect ratio two-pass rectangular smooth channels

Two-pass channels are used for internal cooling in a number of engineering systems e.g., gas turbines. Fluid travelling through the curved path, experiences pressure and centrifugal forces, that result in pressure driven secondary motion. This motion helps in moving the cold high momentum fluid from the channel core to the side walls and plays a significant role in the heat transfer in the channel bend and outlet pass. The present study investigates using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), the flow structure, heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop in a smooth channel with varying aspect ratio channel at different divider-to-tip wall distances. Numerical simulations are performed in two-pass smooth channel with aspect ratio W_in/H = 1:3 at inlet pass and W_out/H = 1:1 at outlet pass for a variety of divider-to-tip wall distances. The results show that with a decrease in aspect ratio of inlet pass of the channel, pressure loss decreases. The divider-to-tip wall distance (W_el) not only influences the pressure drop, but also the heat transfer enhancement at the bend and outlet pass. With an increase in the divider-to-tip wall distance, the areas of enhanced heat transfer shifts from side walls of outlet pass towards the inlet pass. To compromise between heat transfer and pressure drop in the channel, W_el/H = 0.88 is found to be optimum for the channel under study.