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NUMERICAL STUDY ON HEAT AND FLOW TRANSFER CHARACTERISTICS IN RECTANGULAR MINI-CHANNEL WITH S-SHAPED TURBULATOR INSERTED

ABSTRACT

The mini-channel heat exchanger has better heat and flow transfer characteristics than conventional heat exchanger. In this study, we use the S-shaped turbulator inserted, which is simple to install and inexpensive, to improve the heat exchange. The fluid-flow and heat transfer characteristics in smooth and inserted S-shaped turbulator rectangular mini-channels are simulated by numerical simulation under constant wall temperature heating in the Reynolds number 198.77-1987.67. The results of the numerical simulation show that compared with the smooth mini-channel, the pressure drop of the three rectangular mini-channels with different inserted S-shaped turbulators with radii on the horizontal axis of 1 mm, 1.5 mm, and 2 mm increase by 334.8-774.3%, 275.9-606.4%, and 234.6-500.4%. The average Nusselt numbers grow by 28.7-98.6%, 18.8-92% and 11.1-88.5%. The total thermal resistances reduce by 22.43-50.15%, 15.91-48.40%, and 10.08%-47.45%. The field coordination numbers increase by 30.36%-115.29%, 19.72-106.94%, and 19.72-104.72%. Moreover, the non-linear regression method establishes the prediction formulas of the pressure drop and average Nusselt number. In most cases, the deviation between predicted and simulated values is between ±4.6% and ±14%.

KEYWORDS

mini-channel, S-shaped turbulator, heat transfer, laminar flow, CFD

PAPER SUBMITTED: 2022-09-19

PAPER REVISED: 2022-11-11

PAPER ACCEPTED: 2022-11-14

PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2023-01-07

DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI220919210F

CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file

THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2023, VOLUME 27, ISSUE No. 4, PAGES [2865 - 2877]

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Numerical study on heat and flow transfer characteristics in rectangular mini-channel with S-shaped turbulator inserted

© 2026 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence

THERMAL SCIENCE

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Yongqiang Fang

Fanmao Meng

Yinhang Xi

Anchao Zhang

NUMERICAL STUDY ON HEAT AND FLOW TRANSFER CHARACTERISTICS IN RECTANGULAR MINI-CHANNEL WITH S-SHAPED TURBULATOR INSERTED