Flow and Heat Transfer in a Rotating Square Channel With 45 deg Angled Ribs by Reynolds Stress Turbulence Model

Numerical predictions of three-dimensional flow and heat transfer are presented for a rotating square channel with 45 deg angled ribs as tested by Johnson et al. (1994). The rib height-to-hydraulic diameter ratio $e/Dh$ is 0.1 and the rib pitch-to-height ratio (P/e) is 10. The cross section of the ribs has rounded edges and corners. The computation results are compared with the experimental data of Johnson et al. (1994) at a Reynolds number (Re) of 25,000, inlet coolant-to-wall density ratio $Δρ/ρ$ of 0.13, and three rotation numbers (Ro) of 0.0, 0.12, and 0.24. A multiblock numerical method has been employed with a near-wall second-moment turbulence closure model. In the present method, the convective transport equations for momentum, energy, and turbulence quantities are solved in curvilinear, body-fitted coordinates using the finite-analytic method. Pressure is computed using a hybrid SIMPLER/PISO approach, which satisfies the continuity of mass and momentum simultaneously at every time step. The second-moment solutions show that the secondary flows induced by the angled ribs, rotating buoyancy, and Coriolis forces produced strong nonisotropic turbulent stresses and heat fluxes that significantly affected flow fields and surface heat transfer coefficients. The present near-wall second-moment closure model provided an improved flow and heat transfer prediction.