Heat transfer, pressure drop, and fluid flow in interrupted wall passages

Experiments were performed to obtain heat transfer, pressure drop, and fluid flow information in interrupted wall passages formed from multiple arrays of parallel, in-line, and staggered plate arrangements and one cross-plate arrangement. The experiments included parametrically adjusting plate thickness, plate length, streamwise spacing between plate arrays and Reynolds number. The results show that the shorter the plate length, the greater the heat transfer augmentation. Also, heat transfer increased with plate thickness, but with a relatively larger penalty in pressure drop. Using the Schlieren method for flow visualization, three flow regions were identified and found to be correlated to the heat transfer and pressure drop data. In one of the flow regions, periodic vortex shedding produced audible tones. However, significant heat transfer augmentation may be realized without venturing into this region.