NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF HEAT

TRANSFER ENHANCEMENT IN DIMPLED

CHANNEL WITH VORTEX GENERATORS

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE

DEGREE OF MASTER OF ENGINEERING

IN THERMAL ENGINEERING

OF THE ANNA UNIVERSITY

PHASE I
PROJECT WORK
DECEMBER-2020
Submitted by
AARON P
Register No: 1953201
Under the Guidance of
Dr. S. SIVALAKSHMI Ph.D.,

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

GOVERNMENT COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

(An Autonomous Institution Affiliated to Anna University, Chennai)

Salem - 636 011

 DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

GOVERNMENT COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

(An Autonomous Institution Affiliated to Anna University, Chennai)

Salem - 636 011

PHASE I

PROJECT WORK

DECEMBER 2020

This is to certify that this project work entitled

NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF HEAT

TRANSFER ENHANCEMENT IN DIMPLED
CHANNEL WITH VORTEX GENERATORS

is the bonafide record of project work done by

AARON P (Register Number: 1953201)

of M.E. Thermal Engineering during the year 2020– 2021

Project Guide Head of the Department

Dr. S. SIVALAKSHM Ph.D., Dr. T. BALUSAMY Ph.D.,

Submitted for the project Viva -Voce examination held on

Internal Examiner External Examiner

 i
ABSTRACT

The combination of vortex generators (VGs) and dimples on a microchannel heat sink

is proposed to improve the heat transfer performance on a cooling surface with a

constant heat flux of 100 W/cm2. Three pairs of VGs are evenly distributed along flow

direction, while the dimples are placed downstream of VGs with the same intervals.

Numerical simulations are performed with de-ionized water as working fluid for the

Reynolds number in the range from 140 to 285. The result indicates that the adoption

of VGs and dimples could improve the heat transfer as the Nusselts number is increased

by 58.2% compared with smooth microchannel. The intensity of vortices induced by

VGs is much stronger than those induced by dimples and the interaction between

dimples and VGs is advantageous for heat transfer enhancement.

 ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank GOD, the Almighty for giving me the strength to remain
on the path to success.

I am forever grateful to my beloved mother for her blessings, help and wishes for
the successful completion of this project..

I thank respected Principal Dr. C. Vasanthanayagi Ph.D., for permitting me to

carry out the project with her constant encouragement.

I wish to express my sincere and deep sense of gratitude to Dr. T. Balusamy

Ph.D., Head of the Department, Mechanical Engineering for his encouragement,
motivation and advices to develop my project into a successful one

This project was accomplished under the guidance of Dr.S.SIVALAKSHMIPh.D.,

Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, who has given her
continuous support encouragement.

I would like to thank my Faculty advisor Dr. M. Raja Ph.D., Assistant Professor,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, who has given his continuous support
encouragement.

I thank all the faculty members of the Department of Mechanical Engineering for
their cooperation during the course of this project work and I owe my grateful thanks to
my friends who had helped and encouraged me.
 iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER CONTENTS PAGE

NO NO
ABSTRACT i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii
LIST OF TABLES V
LIST OF FIGURES Vi
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 HEAT SINK 1
1.2 HEAT SINK IN DETAIL 2

2 LITERATURE REVIEW 3
2.1 Literature Review 3
2.2 Conclusions from the Literature Review 5
2.3 Objective of this Project 5
3 METHODOLOGY 6
4 MODEL DESCRIPTION 7
4.1. Model Description 7
4.2 CAD Model 8
4.2.1 Case 1: Smooth Channel configuration 8
4.2.2 Case 2: Channel with pure dimples configuration 8
4.2.3 Case 3: Channel with pure VGs configuration 9
4.2.4 Case 4: Channel with dimples with VGs configuration 9
4.3 Mathematic model
10
4.3.1Continuity equation
4.3.2 Momentum equation: 10
4.3.3 Energy equation: 10
4.3.4 Energy Equation for silicon 10
4.4 Boundary conditions and solving methods
10
4.4.1 Boundary conditions at the inlet:
4.4.2 At the outlet: 10
4.4.3 At the interface between solid and liquid: 10
4.4.4 Solving methods 11
4.5 Material Properties 11
 iv

4.5.1 fluid material 11

4.6 PARAMETER DEFINITION 12

5 MESHING 13
5.1 Meshing Parameter 13
5.1.1 Case1: Smooth Channel configuration 13
5.1.2 Case2: Channel with pure dimples configuration 14
5.1.2 Case3: Channel with pure VGs configuration 14
5.1.2 Case4: Channel with dimples and VGs configuration 15
6 CFD ANALYSIS
6.1 Introduction to FEM 16

6.2 Setup and Solution 17

6.3 Viscous Model 17
6.4 Material Selection 17
6.5 Boundary conditions 18
6.6 Calculation 18
7 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
7.1 CFD POST 19
7.2 Contours and graph 19
7.2.1 Case1: Smooth Channel configuration 21
7.2.2 Case2: Channel with pure dimples configuration 21
7.2.3 Case3: Channel with pure VGs configuration 22
7.2.4 Case4: Channel with dimples and VGs configuration 22
7.3 Discussion 23

8 Conclusion 24
 v

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE
TITLE
NO NO

3.1 Flow structure 6

LIST OF GRAPHS

TABLE PAGE
TITLE
NO NO

7.1 case-1 Reynolds number vs Nusselt Number 21

7.2 case-2 Reynolds number vs Nusselt Number 21

7.3 case-3 Reynolds number vs Nusselt Number 22

7.4 case-4 Reynolds number vs Nusselt Number 22

 vi

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE PAGE
TITLE
NO NO

4.1 Physical Model of Heat Sink 7

4.2 Smooth Channel configuration 8
4.3 Channel with pure dimples configuration 8
4.4 Channel with pure VGs configuration 9
channel with dimples with VGs configuration 9
4.5
5.1 Smooth Channel configuration 13
5.2 Channel with pure dimples configuration 14
5.3 Channel with pure VGs configuration 14
channel with dimples with VGs configuration 15
5.4

7.1 vortex generated by VGs 19

7.2 Temperature Contour 20

7.3 Pressure contour 20

 CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 HEAT SINK
A heat sink is a passive heat exchanger that transfers the heat generated by an
electronic or a mechanical device to a fluid medium, often air or a liquid coolant,
where it is dissipated away from the device, thereby allowing regulation of the
device's temperature. In computers, heat sinks are used to cool CPUs, GPUs, and
some chipsets and RAM modules. Heat sinks are used with high-power
semiconductor devices such as power transistors and optoelectronics such as lasers
and light emitting diodes (LEDs), where the heat dissipation ability of the
component itself is insufficient to moderate its temperature

1.2 HEAT SINK IN DETAIL

A heat sink transfers thermal energy from a higher temperature device to a lower
temperature fluid medium. The fluid medium is frequently air, but can also be water,
refrigerants or oil. If the fluid medium is water, the heat sink is frequently called a
cold plate. In thermodynamics a heat sink is a heat reservoir that can absorb an
arbitrary amount of heat without significantly changing temperature. Practical heat
sinks for electronic devices must have a temperature higher than the surroundings
to transfer heat by convection, radiation, and conduction. The power supplies of
electronics are not 100% efficient, so extra heat is produced that may be detrimental
to the function of the device. As such, a heat sink is included in the design to disperse
heat. When the air flow through the heat sink decreases, this results in an increase
in the average air temperature. This in turn increases the heat sink base temperature.
And additionally, the thermal resistance of the heat sink will also increase. The net
result is a higher heat sink base temperature. The heat sink thermal resistance
increase with decrease in flow rate .The inlet air temperature relates strongly with
the heat sink base temperature. For example, if there is recirculation of air in a
product, the inlet air temperature is not the ambient air temperature. The inlet air

1
temperature of the heat sink is therefore higher, which also results in a higher heat
sink base temperature. If there is no air flow around the heat sink, energy cannot be
transferred. Natural convection requires free flow of air over the heat sink. If fins
are not aligned vertically, or if fins are too close together to allow sufficient air flow
between them, the efficiency of the heat sink will decline. Thermal resistance for
semiconductor devices used in a variety of consumer and industrial electronics, the
idea of thermal resistance simplifies the selection of heat sinks. The heat flow
between the semiconductor die and ambient air is modelled as a series of resistances
to heat flow; there is a resistance from the die to the device case, from the case to
the heat sink, and from the heat sink to the ambient air. The sum of these resistances
is the total thermal resistance from the die to the ambient air. Thermal resistance is
defined as temperature rise per unit of power, analogous to electrical resistance. If
the device dissipation in watts is known, and the total thermal resistance is
calculated, the temperature rise of the die over the ambient air can be calculated.
The idea of thermal resistance of a semiconductor heat sink is an approximation. It
does not take into account non-uniform distribution of heat over a device or heat
sink. It only models a system in thermal equilibrium, and does not take into account
the change in temperatures with time. Nor does it reflect the non-linearity of
radiation and convection with respect to temperature rise.

2
 CHAPTER-2

Literature Review

2.1 Literature Review

Biswas et al., (2010) performed numerical simulations considering delta winglet pair
and concluded that thermal performance can be improved by as high as up to 240%
behind the tube in wake region.

Yonghui Xie et al., (2015) studied the flow and heat transfer characteristics of teardrop
dimple and protrusion with different eccentricities and compared with hemispherical
dimple/protrusion in the present study. The teardrop dimple/protrusion shows good
performance for lower Reynolds number.

Yu Rao et al., (2015) performed a comparative experimental and numerical study to

investigate the heat transfer of turbulent flow in channel with arrays of spherical dimples
and teardrop dimples.

Y. Xu, M.D. Islamet et al., (2018) studied four VGs, fitted in a circular pattern inside
a smooth pipe, were characterized by different attack angles and blockage ratios and a
specific configuration generated the highest thermal performance enhancement (TPE).

A.Leontiev et.al(2018) studied about the dimples of six different shapes were
considered, namely, spherical, oval, and teardrop dimples, spherical dimples with
rounded edges, turned teardrop dimples, and dimples obtained by milling a sphere along
a circular arc.

Yu Jiao et al., (2019) studied the numerical investigation to probe the heat transfer
performance and flow behaviour in a channel having miniature cuboid vortex
generators (MCVGs) at Reynolds number 7490.

3
Sung Goon Park et al.,(2019) studied the influence of the inclination angle and the
bending rigidity of the flexible vortex generator on the thermal performance is mainly
examined. The flapping mode of the flexible vortex generator largely depends on the
inclination angle, which is measured counter-clockwise from the positive x-axis.

S. Caliskan et al., (2019) studied both new punched triangular vortex generators
(PTVGs) and punched rectangular vortex generators (PRVGs) and they were directly
punched, which created higher turbulence due to the separated and reattached flows.

M. Khoshvaght-Aliabadi et al., (2019) experimental studied to investigate the effect

of variable longitudinal spacing among delta-winglets in vortex-generator (VG)
channels. The maximum value for the overall hydrothermal performance factor of VG
channels is around 1.41%.

Li Zhang et al., (2019) innovated the vortex generator (VG) named as streamlined
winglet pair (SWP) VG. Among all types of VGs used in this study, the SWP VGs
exhibits the least pressure drop.

Wang Jiansheng et al., (2020) puts forward a novel idea which can be used to control
the turbulent coherent structures and it shows that the wake and vortices induced by
cuboids can restrict turbulent movement in span wise direction, which results in
enhancement of the heat transfer performances well as reduction of the skin-friction in
the channel.

Rajnish N. Sharma A et al., (2020) experimental investigated the heat transfer

characteristics of rectangular channels equipped with a flapping flag as a vortex
generator. It seems that this approach is relatively unexplored compared to conventional
vortex generators.

4
Myunggeun Jeong, et.al(2020) Performed the numerical simulations on general
dimpled shapes with longitudinal crescent shaped vortex generators. The vortex
generators are placed downstream of the dimples with six different angles of attacks in
the Reynolds and Prandtl number in the range of 2800 and 0.7.

Lei Luo et al., (2020) studied the interaction between the dimples and DWVGs is of
interest. The results showed that the heat transfer was increased significantly at the
protrusion (dimple with negative depth) leading edge, rear of the dimple and
downstream on the dimple because of flow impingement and flow reattachment.

2.2 CONCLUSIONS FROM THE LITERATURE REVIEW

As reviewed above, both VGs and dimples are efficient structures to enhance heat
transfer rate with moderate pressure loss. However, the heat transfer effects of
microchannel with the combination of VGs and dimples were rarely reported. The
vortices generated by VGs may have an influence on the flow structure of dimples and
improve the heat transfer performance in low Re regime. Therefore, different types of
microchannel with VGs or dimples are compared for the purpose of revealing such
combination effects. The interaction effects of vortices induced by VGs and dimples on
heat transfer performance and flow resistance are also analysed.

2.3 Objective of the project

The main objective of this work is to improve the heat transfer performance on a cooling
surface that is heat sink microchannel used in industrial power electronics heat
dissipation. The present study focuses on the combined effect of tear drop dimples and
triangular VGs and the heat transfer rate and the pressure drop is to be numerically
investigated. This study presents the numerical model of tear drop dimpled channel with
triangular vortex generators.

5
 CHAPTER-3

METHODOLOGY

A 3D model of the physical representation of a single microchannel of heat sink pair

has been modelled using soildworks CAD software and it is imported to ansys FEA
software. The meshing operation is performed in ansys Workbench and the data is
exported into fluent Solver in which the CFD analysis is performed. Finally after
completing the required calculations, the results are obtained and a conclusion is
provided.

3D model using soildworks Imported the 3D model to

software ansys (FEA) software

Creating the fluid domain

and meshing operation is

CFD Analysis is done using

ansys Fluent Software

Result and Discussion

Table 3.1 Flow structure

6
 CHAPTER-4

MODEL DESCRIPTION

4.1 Description
The microchannel heat sink used in industrial power electronics heat dissipation
consists of 25 micro channels. For the modelling purpose, a single microchannel is
taken as a reference design.

Fig.4.1 Physical Model of Heat Sink

A uniform heat flux is imposed on the bottom of the microchannel, and the heat is
dissipated by de-ionized water. The high pressure drop between inlet and outlet and the
non-uniform temperature distribution are the main limitations of the microchannel heat
sink. In the present study, dimples and VGs are adopted on the side wall of
microchannel to improve heat transfer performance with relatively low pressure loss
penalty. However, the arrangement of dimples and VGs requires special design. For the
internal flow, the heat transfer coefficient near the entrance is quite high due to the
entrance effect and application of VGs in this region has little effect to improve no-
uniform temperature distribution. Therefore, the first row of VGs are placed at a
distance of 2.5 mm from the entrance. For the present study, the distance between the
7
VGs is set to be 25 times the height of VG, i.e., 2.5 mm. The interaction of VGs and
dimples is one of the considerations for the present study. As the VGs are arranged in
pairs, the dimples are also placed in pairs with the same interval at downstream of VGs.

4.2 CAD MODEL

‘Geometry’ is the ANSYS Fluent workspace for creating 2D or 3D models that need to
be processed further for their heat transfer or fluid flow. The ‘geometry’ has similar
CAD designing workspace like Autodesk Inventor and SOLIDWORKS. The older
versions of ANSYS (older than ANSYS 19) offers a conventional ‘Design Modeler,’
whereas the new ANSYS 19 and above offers Design Modeler and SpaceClaim.
SpaceClaim is one of the many new features added to ANSYS Fluent. Geometries for
ANSYS Fluent can also be imported from other CAD software.The heat transfer
performance and fluid flow characteristics of the following cases are investigated and
compared. The CAD model of the different cases is as follows.

4.2.1 Case 1: Smooth Channel configuration

Fig.4.2 Smooth Channel configuration

4.2.2 Case 2: Channel with pure dimples configuration

Fig.4.3 Channel with pure dimples configuration

8
4.2.3 Case 3: Channel with pure VGs configuration

Fig.4.4 Channel with pure VGs configuration

4.2.4 Case 4: Channel with dimples and VGs configuration

Fig.4.1 Channel with dimples and VGs configuration

4.3 Mathematic model

The coolant used in the microchannel is de-ionized water. The following assumptions
are made to analyze the fluid flow and heat transfer in microchannel.
 The fluid is incompressible and the flow is steady and laminar.
 The fluid properties are piecewise-linear function of temperature
 The viscous dissipation is neglected.
 The effects of body forces and radiation are negligible
Based on the above assumptions, the governing equations of mass, momentum and
energy equations of fluid can be expressed as follows
9
4.3.1 Continuity equation

4.3.1 Momentum equation

4.3.1 Energy equation

4.3.2 Energy Equation for silicon

4.4 Boundary conditions and solving methods

A uniform heat flux of q = 100 W/cm2 is applied on the bottom wall of the
microchannel, which is a typical value of electronics with high power and high heat flux

4.4.1 Boundary conditions at the inlet:

u = Uin , v =0 , w = 0 , T = Tin = 300 k
4.4.2 At the outlet:

4.4.3 At the interface between solid and liquid:

10
4.4.4 Solving methods
The commercial software ANSYS Fluent is adopted in the present simulation. The
SIMPLEC algorithm is applied to solve the coupling of pressure and velocity. For
momentum and energy equations, the convective terms are discretized by second-order
upwind scheme. The residual criteria are set as 10−5 for continuity equation and
momentum and 10−7 for energy equation. The under relaxation factors for pressure,
momentum and energy are 0.3, 0.7 and 1, respectively.

4.5 Material Properties

4.5.1 Microchannel
The material selected for the microchannel is silicon and the thermal-physical properties
of the silicon are:
λs = 148 W/ (m·K),
cps = 712 J/(kg·K),
ρs = 2329 kg/m3

4.5.1 Fluid material

11
4.6 PARAMETER DEFINITION

4.6.1 The hydraulic diameter (Dh) is given by,

Dh = 2HcWc/(Hc+ Wc)
4.6.2 The Reynolds number is defined as:

4.6.3 The local heat transfer coefficient is calculated as:

4.6.4 Nusselt number is defined as:

12
 CHAPTER 5

MESHING

5.1 Meshing Parameter

Meshing is an integral part of all the analysis systems in ANSYS. Meshing allows the
geometries to be broken into small element so that each elements can be processed
separately to generate the results. The finer the mesh, the better the results. However,
refining mesh too much can lead to high processing times. The regions around VGs and
dimples are meshed with further refined grid to deal with the flow separation. The
boundary layer meshes are imposed on the near-wall region of conjugated wall between
fluid and solid. Therefore, engineers must determine the sweet spot between the density
of the mesh and the accuracy of the result. The minimum size of the mesh value is
chosen to be 2x10^-5 m and based on the grid independent test the meshing operation
has been performed on these following cases
5.1.1 Case 1: Smooth Channel configuration

Fig.5.1 Smooth Channel configuration

13
5.1.2 Case 2: Channel with pure dimples configuration

Fig.5.2 Channel with pure dimples configuration

5.1.2 Case 3: Channel with pure VGs configuration

Fig.5.2 Channel with pure VGs configuration

14
5.1.2 Case 4: Channel with dimples and VGs configuration

Fig.5.2 Channel with dimples and VGs configuration

15
 CHAPTER 6

CFD ANALYSIS

6.1 INTRODUCTION TO FEM

In mathematics, the finite element method (FEM) is a numerical technique for
finding approximate solutions to boundary value problems for partial differential
equations. It uses variation methods (the calculus of variations) to minimize an error
function and produce a stable solution. Analogous to the idea that connecting many tiny
straight lines can approximate a larger circle, FEM encompasses all the methods for
connecting many simple element equations over many small sub domains, named finite
elements, to approximate a more complex equation over a larger domain.
The subdivision of a whole domain into simpler parts has several advantages:
 Accurate representation of complex geometry
 Inclusion of dissimilar material properties
 Easy representation of the total solution
 Capture of local effects.

FEM is best understood from its practical application, known as finite element
analysis (FEA). FEA as applied in engineering is a computational tool for performing
engineering analysis. It includes the use of mesh generation techniques for dividing a
complex problem into small elements, as well as the use of software program coded
with FEM algorithm. In applying FEA, the complex problem is usually a physical
system with the underlying physics such as the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation, the heat
equation, or the Navier-Stokes equations expressed in either PDE or integral equations,
while the divided small elements of the complex problem represent different areas in
the physical system.

6.2 Setup and Solution

The workflows inside ansys is that the each system has a set of five components. Each
16
component has a specific set of functions and is necessary for them to be set correctly
for the complete Fluent system to run correctly. Double-clicking over setup launches
the ANSYS Fluent. Before Fluent opens, a Fluent Launcher opens to set the pre-launch
settings. It allows you to select your dimensions, display options, processing options
and much more. One of the many great features of ANSYS Fluent is to its ability to use
parallel processing or multiple processors of HPC. After the ANSYS Fluent has opened,
the work tree and the task page can be seen on the left side of the window. The tree and
task page includes the setup, solution, boundary conditions, cell zone condition and all
other variables set on the geometry to generate fluid flow or heat transfer result.

6.3 Viscous Model

Fluent contains a list of different models that the users can use according to their need.
For example, if the user needs to determine viscous flow over an object he can choose
from several different present formulations to generate their results. The multiphase
processing, energy in the system, acoustics, and discrete phases can all be set here. It
was seen that the k-ε turbulence model along with the energy conservation equation was
fairly well equipped at predicting thermal performance parameters but numerical
pressure drops values had some disagreement with experimental values to a significant
extent. The reason behind this was that the k-ε model failed to accurately capture
separated flows caused due to addition of vortex generators. As a result, the Shear Stress
Transport (from now on referred to as SST) k-ω turbulence model, has been used in the
present study for modelling all the configurations.

6.4 Material Selection

After the model for the simulation is selected, the user may select the type of fluid and
the solid on which the fluid will be interacting. ANSYS Fluent has a wide array of preset
fluids and solids to choose from their database. If you are testing a new solid or fluid,
you can always set your custom material by setting its properties.

17
6.5 Boundary conditions
Setting up boundary conditions is also an important part in the CFD simulation.
Boundary conditions help the software determine the fluid inlets and outlets and how
each surface will behave when in contact with the fluid. The values and type of inlets
and outlets can all be selected by the user. The user can also select a wide array of
turbulence models if the flow is not laminar.

6.6 Calculation
After all the variables are set, the solution is then processed via ‘Run Calculation.’ This
is the part where the iterations of formulations are carried out so that they can be
converged. Here, the solver uses complex mathematical equations to generate the
results. For results to be precise, it is necessary for the calculations to converge.

18
 CHAPTER 7

Results and discussion

7.1 CFD post

The ‘results’ are obtained via CFD post-processor for Fluent. Under CFD-post, the
outputs from the variables that are set up in Fluent can be visually seen and analysed.
CFD post is an important component and essential to the users as here they can see a
simulated demonstration of how their product will behave in real life scenarios. Users
can make contours, streamlines, vectors, particle tracking and many other different
visual features that allows the designers and engineers to see how their product will
behave in actual condition. The contours also help us visually see the effects of the
fluids over the body.

7.1 Contours and graph

Fig.7.1 vortex generated by VGs

19
 Fig.7.2 Temperature Contour

Fig.7.3 Pressure contour

This way the design engineers can visually evaluate their design and make tweets as
needed. There are different sets of inputs that the user can put in to get their desired
results in the CFD-post. The Nusselt number for all the cases

20
7.1.1 Case 1: Smooth Channel configuration

Graph.7.1 Smooth Channel configuration

7.1.1 Case 2: Channel with pure dimples configuration

Graph.7.2 Channel with pure dimples configuration

21
7.1.1 Case 3: Channel with pure VGs configuration

Graph.7.3 Channel with pure VGs configuration

7.1.1 Case 4: Channel with dimples and VGs configuration

Graph.7.4 Channel with dimples and VGs configuration

22
7.2 Discussion
As stated before, both VGs and dimples are efficient structures to enhance heat transfer
performance with moderate pressure drop. In order to investigate the effect of VG and
dimple, microchannel with different configurations of dimples and VGs are designed.
The heat transfer performance and pressure drop of these microchannel are firstly
compared, and then the flow structure around the VGs and dimples as well as the heat
transfer mechanism are analyzed. Finally, the influences of vortices induced by VGs
and dimples on heat transfer enhancement are evaluated by dimensionless secondary
flow intensity. The Nusselt number is compared with the smooth channel and the
Nusselt number for dimpled channel is increased by 5.8%, for channel with dimple by
44.2% and for dimpled channel with vg the nusselt number increased by 58.2%.
The longitudinal vortices induced by VGs could intensify the momentum transfer in the
dimples which indicates the interaction between dimples and VGs is beneficial for heat
transfer enhancement. The vortex intensity induced by the dimples is quite small
compared with the vortices generated by VGs and the flow structure in the dimples is
mainly influenced by the VGs.

23
 CHAPTER 8
Conclusions
The heat transfer performance and fluid flow characteristics in a microchannel with
dimples and VGs are numerically studied. Three pairs of VGs are distributed evenly
along flow direction on the liquid-solid interface. Pairs of dimples are arranged behind
VGs with the same interval. In order to investigate the interaction effect of dimples and
VGs on the performance of microchannel, different case are taken and Analysis is
performed.
(1).The longitudinal vortices induced by VGs could intensify the momentum transfer in
the dimples which indicates the interaction between dimples and VGs is beneficial for
heat transfer enhancement.
(2).The fluid flow analysis indicates that the interaction effect of dimples and VGs on
heat transfer enhancement is always positive.
(3). The Nusselt number is compared with the smooth channel and the Nusselt number
for dimpled channel is increased by 5.8%, for channel with dimple the Nusselt number
increased by 44.2% and for dimpled channel with vg the Nusselt number increased by
58.2%.

24