PREDICTION OF TURBULENT HEAT-TRANSFER IN THE ENTRANCE OF AN ARRAY OF HEATED BLOCKS USING LOW-REYNOLDS-NUMBER K-EPSILON MODEL

A numerical study is conducted to investigate the entrance behavior of turbulent flow and heat transfer in an array of rectangular heated blocks. The blocks are deployed along one wall of a parallel plate duct in an in-line arrangement in an attempt to simulate the cooling passages of electronic equipment. The Lam-Bremhorst low-Reynolds-number form of the k-epsilon turbulence model is used for the computations. The computations are performed for a set of geometric parameters characterizing the array and for the conditions of constant wall temperature and uniform heat generation per module. The Reynolds numbers ranged from 2000 to 5000, with the laminar Prandtl number 0.7 and the turbulent Prandtl number 0.9. The results are presented in the form of axial velocity contours, pressure distributions, and local and averaged Nusselt numbers, and are compared with relevant experimental data.