Heat Transfer Engineering, Vol.36, No.14-15, 1165-1176, 2015
Single-Phase Laminar Flow Heat Transfer From Confined Electron Beam Enhanced Surfaces
An experimental investigation of the thermal-hydraulic characteristics for single-phase flow through three electron beam enhanced structures was conducted with water at mass flow rates from 0.005kg/s to 0.045kg/s. The structures featured copper heat transfer surfaces, approximately 28mm wide and 32mm long in the flow direction, with complex three-dimensional (3D) electron beam manufactured pyramid-like structures. The channel height varied depending on the height of the protrusions and the tip clearance was maintained at 0.1-0.3mm. The average protrusion densities for the three samples S1, S2, and S3 were 13, 11, and 25 per cm(2) with protrusion heights of 2.5, 2.8, and 1.6mm, respectively. The data gathered were compared to those for a smooth channel surface operating under similar conditions. The results show an increase up to approximately three times for the average Nusselt number compared with the smooth surface. This is attributed to the surface irregularities of the enhanced surfaces, which not only increase the heat transfer area but also improve mixing, disturb the thermal and velocity boundary layers, and reduce thermal resistance. The increase in heat transfer with the enhanced surfaces was accompanied by an increase of pressure drop, which has to be considered in design.