Heat transfer in a three-dimensional channel with baffles

A numerical investigation of laminar forced convective heat transfer was performed in a three-dimensional channel with baffles in which a uniform heat flux was applied to the top and bottom walls, and the sidewalls were considered adiabatic. The trade-off between heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop produced by the baffles was studied for periodically fully developed flow (PDF). The numerical analysis was performed using a finite volume approach. The computer code was validated against the experimental results of Goldstein and Kreid [1] and Beavers et al. [2] for a three-dimensional channel without baffles. Parametric runs were made for Reynolds numbers of 150, 250, 354 and 450 for baffle height to channel width ratios (H/D-y) of 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, and 0.8. Heat transfer behavior was studied for Prandtl numbers of 0.7 and 7.0 and for wall thermal conductivity to fluid thermal conductivity ratios (K) of 1, 10 100 and 1000.