Forcing of unsteady separated flow and convective heat transfer via bulk upstream oscillations

Simulations are presented for the unsteady separated-reattaching flow and associated heat transfer over a long rectangular plate subjected to an oscillatory inlet velocity, U = 1 + A(p) sin 2pif(p)t. The two-dimensional simulations are performed at a Reynolds number of 1000 by solving the time-dependent Navier-Stokes and energy equation using a finite volume method. The computations are performed on a 300 x 100 grid, using centered second-order accurate spatial discretization, and a third-order time-stepping scheme. The effect of forcing is investigated by exploring the response of the flow over a. range of frequencies up to the 60th harmonic of the natural vortex shedding frequencies and for velocity perturbation amplitudes up to 20% of the free stream. Forcing of the flow is found to radically alter the dynamics of the flow and results in significantly higher local heat transfer rates. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.