NUMERICAL PREDICTIONS OF ENTROPY GENERATION FOR MIXED CONVECTIVE FLOWS IN A VERTICAL CHANNEL WITH TRANSVERSE FIN ARRAY

This study is concerned with local entropy generation of the laminar mixed-convective flow in a vertical channel with a series of transverse fins. These fins, placed on the hotter wall, provide more areas for heat-transfer but meanwhile cause a significant increase in local irreversibilities. Numerical solutions of the elliptic momentum and energy equations are carried out with the stream functoin-vorticity method. Distribution of local entropy generation is further predicted by solving the entropy generation equation based on the obtained velocity and temperature data. Results for various physical and geometric parameters are presented. Consequently, the geometric configuration of the finned channel with higher second-law efficiency is proposed.