Energy 224 (2021) 119944

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

On the solar air heater thermal enhancement and flow topology using
differently shaped ribs combined with delta-winglet vortex
generators
n b, *
Zhiqi Zhao a, b, Lei Luo a, Dandan Qiu a, b, Zhongqi Wang a, Bengt Sunde
a
School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China
b
Division of Heat Transfer, Department of Energy Sciences, Lund University, Lund, 22100, Sweden

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A numerical investigation has been conducted to study the convective heat transfer enhancement and
Received 19 September 2020 friction loss behaviors for turbulent flow by using arrays of differently shaped ribs combined with delta-
Received in revised form winglet vortex generators (DWVGs) pair on the absorber plate of a solar air heater. Four transverse vortex
16 January 2021
generators arrays, i.e., 90
continuous ribs, 90
truncated ribs, 60
V-shaped continuous ribs, and 60
V-
Accepted 20 January 2021
Available online 10 February 2021
shaped truncated ribs, are studied to investigate the mixing effect with the DWVGs pair. The aspect ratio
(AR ¼ Lv /Hv ) of the DWVGs is 2:1 while the geometrical condition of the ribs is height of 0.003 m and
pitch of 0.028 m. The Reynolds number ranges from 4000 to 20,000. Results of temperature, Nusselt
Keywords:
Solar air heater
number, vortical structure, topological portrait, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), friction factor and ther-
Heat transfer enhancement mal performance evaluation are included. The results show that the adoption of DWVGs and the shape
Delta-winglet vortex generators type of the ribs have great impact on the heat transfer and flow structure in the solar air heater. It is
V-shaped ribs found that the DWVGs combined with the 60
V-shaped continuous ribs contributes the best heat
transfer performance, and the heat transfer is enhanced by 39.4% compared with the only DWVGs case.
© 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction
Air pollution, global warming and other issues caused largely by
the burning of fossil fuels and the emissions of greenhouse gases
could lead to potentially catastrophic changes in the Earth’s climate
and then threaten human health. Meeting the human’s needs for
heating, cooling, electricity in a sustainable way have been
considered to be one of the greatest challenges for the future
generation. Compared with the conventional power plants, alter-
native energy is a promising practice of using renewable resources,
such as sunlight, wave, wind, tides, etc. Solar energy, which is a
radiant light and heat from the sun, is an important source of
renewable energy. A simple utilization of the sunlight is a solar air
heater. It is the main component of the solar thermal systems
which collects the heat by absorbing the radiant sunlight, and then
heats the moving cool air as shown in Fig. 1. The solar heated air can
be used in various applications [1e5], such as process heating (i.e.,
drying laundry, crops and timber), space heating, pre-heating
* Corresponding author.
n).
E-mail address: bengt.sunden@energy.lth.se (B. Sunde
ventilation makeup air, etc. They are among the highly efficient
and economical solar thermal technologies because of the simple
duct and the endless air on human timescale. But the relatively low
thermal conductivity (l) of the air results in a heat transfer rate of
solar air heating lower than that of solar water heating. Thus, the
thermal enhancement for solar air heater is needed.
Turbulent flow dominates in the solar air heater because of the
high Reynolds number. As we know, the viscous sublayer in the
turbulent boundary layer leads to the low heat transfer efficiency
because heat conduction prevails. Therefore, it is an effective way to
reduce the thickness of the boundary layer and to enhance the
mixing of the main stream and near-wall fluids. A passive heat
transfer enhancement way is to place vortex generators on the
absorber plate of the solar air heater to induce vortices. These
vortices are usually classified as a longitudinal vortex and a trans-
verse vortex.
Delta-winglet vortex generators (DWVGs) are effective longi-
tudinal vortex generators. As the axis of the induced vortex is
parallel to the flow direction, it can persist for a long distance which
is conducive to heat transfer augmentation. Many researchers have
focused on the DWVGs’ impact on the air heating. Skullong et al. [6]
investigated the effect of attack angles, location, and height of the

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.119944
0360-5442/© 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al. Energy 224 (2021) 119944

Nomenclature tx ¼ x-direction length of the truncated section of ribs

(m)
Dh ¼ hydraulic dimeter (m) U0 ¼ mean velocity at inlet (m/s)
f ¼ Darcy friction factor () u ¼ velocity in x-direction (m/s)
H ¼ height of the channel (m) v ¼ velocity in y-direction (m/s)
Hr ¼ height of the ribs (m) Vy ¼ y-direction distance between the DWVGs and the
Hv ¼ height of the DWVGs (m) inlet section (m)
L ¼ length of the test section (m) W ¼ width of the channel (m)
Le ¼ entrance extension section (m) a ¼ heat transfer coefficient (W/(m2K))
Lv ¼ length of the DWVGs (m) dp ¼ pressure drop (Pa)
pi ¼ inlet total pressure (Pa) l ¼ fluid thermal conductivity (W/(m K))
po ¼ outlet total pressure (Pa) n ¼ kinematic viscosity (m2/s)
q ¼ heat transfer flux (W/m2) m ¼ dynamic viscosity (Pa s)
tf ¼ film temperature (K) t ¼ wall shear stress (Pa)
tr ¼ thickness of the ribs (m) DWVGs ¼ delta-winglet vortex generators
tv ¼ thickness of the DWVGs (m) TKE ¼ turbulent kinetic energy
tw ¼ temperature on the absorber plate (K)

showed the highest HTC (heat transfer coefficient) while the

Fig. 1. Schematic of a solar air heater.
delta-winglet type vortex generators on the heat transfer and flow
structures in a solar air heater. The vortex generators were placed at
the entrance of the duct and the absorber plate, respectively. Re-
sults showed that 60
DWVGs at pitch ¼ 1 mounted at the entrance
or 30
DWVGs at a relative height ¼ 0.5 placed on the absorber
plate provided higher overall thermal performance than the others.
Luo et al. [7,8] studied the effect of the DWVGs pair combined with
dimple or protrusion arrays on the heat transfer and flow charac-
teristics in a solar receiver. The results indicated that the inline
arrangement dimples showed the best thermal performance. The
heat transfer enhanced by 36.23% with 36.29% pressure drop
penalty compared to the smooth duct. Luo et al. [9] also investi-
gated the interactions between the grooves/ribs and DWVGs. It was
found that the semi-cylinder grooves combined with DWVGs
provided the highest thermal performance.
Ribs, which can induce transverse vortices, help the mixing of
the fluid near the wall. Meanwhile, the impingement and reat-
tachment of the fluid downstream of the ribs can significantly
enhance the local heat transfer. These advantages make it widely
used and researched in the solar air heater. An experimental study
was carried out by Salameh et al. [10] to investigate the heat
transfer and pressure drops across a U-shaped channel represent-
ing a solar air heater. Four different types of ribs, i.e., solid, perfo-
rated, grooved, dimpled ribs, were placed in the turning portion of
the U-shaped channel. It was found that the dimpled rib case
2
grooved rib case provided the highest thermal performance. Sahu
et al. [11] experimentally investigated the effect of 90
broken ribs
on the heat transfer and friction factors in a plate solar air heater.
The results indicated that the highest HTC augmentation emerged
at a pitch of about 0.020 m, which gave the highest efficiency of
83.5%. Alam et al. [12] proposed a novel design of V-shaped ribs
with some holes and applied it to a heater wall of a solar air heater.
Five different hole-shapes, i.e., circular, square and three different
rectangular types, were used with varying pitch of different ribs. It
was found that the non-circular hole ribs provided the maximum
value of the Nusselt number.
As discussed before, both transverse and longitudinal vortices
provide obvious heat transfer enhancement. It is of interest to
attach the DWVGs and ribs together on the absorber plate of a solar
air heater. Although it is of practical importance to investigate such
mixing effect of these turbulators in a solar air heater, no previous
results have been made in open literatures. Therefore, the present
study aims to reveal the flow physics and mechanism of heat
transfer enhancement by using differently shaped ribs combined
with the delta-winglet vortex generators.
2. Physical models description
The solar air heater is a rectangular duct, which includes
absorber plate, insulation plate and sidewalls. In this study, four
different types of ribs combined with a delta-winglet vortex gen-
erators pair are placed on the absorber plate. Due to the symmetry
of studied cases, a part of the channel is simulated in this study, so
the sidewalls of the physical models are set as periodic boundary
conditions. Fig. 2 shows a schematic of the heating air channel with
DWVGs pair and the V-shaped truncated ribs. The width (W) and
height (H) of the inlet section is 0.075 m and 0.03 m, respectively,
which represents a hydraulic dimeter (Dh ) of 0.043 m. To ensure
fully development of the flow, an entrance extension is provided
with a length (Le ) of 0.06 m. The length (L) of test section is 0.2 m. A
pair of DWVGs is symmetrically placed about the centerline of the
channel, with a length (Lv ) of 0.020 m, a height (Hv ) of 0.01 m, a
thickness (tv ) of 0.0012 m and the attack angles of 18
with the flow
direction [7]. The y-direction distance (Vy ) between the leading
edge of the DWVGs and the inlet section is 0.08 m. Among all kinds
of ribs, the rib height (Hr ) and thickness (tr ) are kept at the constant
value of 0.003 m and 0.0012 m, respectively. The y-pitch of each rib
is 0.028 m. The x-direction length (tx ) of the truncated section of
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al. Energy 224 (2021) 119944

Fig. 2. Studied cases and a schematic of the solar air heater channel.

ribs is 0.008 m.

The present study aims to investigate different types ribs and 0 0 11
v rui uj
their effects on the flow structures, friction factors, vortices evo- vP v @ @ vui vuj AA
¼ þ ðm þ mt Þ þ (2)
lution, TKE (turbulent kinetic energy), and heat transfer perfor- vxj vxi vxj vxj vxi
mance in a solar air heater channel with DWVGs pair. The studied
cases are described in Fig. 2. Energy equation
! !
vrT v vT v mt vT
Cp ui ¼ l  Cp (3)
vxi vxi vxi vxi Prt vxi
3. Computational method The turbulence kinetic energy, k, and its rate of dissipation,ε, are
obtained from the following transport equations:
3.1. Solution method
!
v v v vk
The computation model is three-dimensional, steady-state, ðrkÞ þ ðrkui Þ ¼ ak ðm þ mt Þ þ Gk  rε  Ym (4)
incompressible, non-rotating. The motion of the flow is calculated vt vxi vXj vXj
based on the RANS equations. The RNG k-e turbulence model with
wall enhanced treatment function is selected for all cases. The and
governing equations used in this study can be written as follows !
[13]: v v v vk
Continuity equation ðrεÞ þ ðrεui Þ ¼ aε ðm þ mt Þ
vt vxi vxj vXj
(5)

 ε ε
þC1ε Gk  C2ε r  Rε
v uj k k
¼0 (1) where C1ε ¼ 1.42, C2ε ¼ 1:68, ak ¼ aε z1:393, Gk represents the
vxj
generation of turbulence kinetic energy due to the mean velocity
Momentum equation gradients, calculated as described below
3
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al. Energy 224 (2021) 119944

conditions. The inlet velocity is calculated from the Reynolds

vuj
Gk ¼  ru0i u0j (6) numbers ranging from 4000 to 20,000 with an interval of 4000. The
vxi inlet temperature is set as 300 K. A uniform pressure is applied at
the outlet section.


Cm rh3 1  hh
0 ε2 3.4. Data reduction
Rε ¼ , (7)
1þ bh3 k
The Reynolds number Re () can be written as
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
where h ¼ k
2Sij Sij , h0 ¼ 4:38, b ¼ 0:012
ε
U0 Dh
The main difference between the RNG and standard k-ε models Re ¼ (9)
n
lies in the additional term in theε equation given by
The turbulent eddy viscosity is calculated as where.
U0 ¼ inlet mean temperature (m/s).
k2 Dh ¼ hydraulic diameter (m).
mt ¼ rCm (8)
ε n ¼ kinematic viscosity (m2/s).
The heat transfer coefficient a (W/(m2 K)) can be determined
where. Cm ¼ 0:0845: from
 
3.2. Mesh independence q ¼ a tw  tf (10)

The discretization of the computational domain is obtained where.

using the CFD software ANSYS ICEM [14]. Based on the requirement q ¼ the heat flux (W/m2).
for the wall enhanced function of the RNG k-e turbulence model, tw ¼ the temperature on the absorber plate (K).
the y plus value can be guaranteed to be about 1 when the thick- tf ¼ the film temperature, i.e., the arithmetic mean between
ness of first layer of the mesh is 5  106 m. A structured mesh is inlet and outlet temperatures. (K).
used for all cases. Fig. 3 provides the close-up views of DWVGs and The Nusselt number Nu () can be obtained from
ribs meshes. In order to determine the size of the mesh, a careful
mesh independence check is conducted based on Case 1. As shown aDh
in Table 1, the area-averaged Nusselt number is not changing as the Nu ¼ (11)
l
number of the mesh nodes exceeds six million. Thus the number of
mesh nodes for all cases is kept at the level of six million. where.
The cases are calculated by ANSYS Fluent [15]. During the l ¼ the thermal conductivity of air (W/(m K)).
calculation, several physical values (pressure, temperature, velocity, The pressure drop Dp (Pa) is written as
etc.) of the monitoring surfaces (absorber plate, inlet/outlet sec-
tion) and points (near-wall region) are observed. The convergence Dp ¼ pi  po (12)
criterion is that the residuals for the continuity equation, velocity, k
and e is 105. For energy equation, the criterion is 108 and then the where.
monitoring values become stable. pi ¼ the total pressure at inlet (Pa).
po ¼ the total pressure at outlet (Pa).
The Darcy friction factor f () is given by
3.3. Boundary conditions
Dp Dh
For the experimental setup [16], the heat flux on the absorber f¼  (13)
1 rU 2 L
2 o
plate is kept at a constant value of 1000 W/m2 using an electrical
heater. So the absorber plate and the vortex generators of the For fully developed turbulent flow in a duct, the Nu number is
present model are set to the same condition. The insulation plate is calculated by the Dittus-Boelter correlation (see, for example,
adiabatic condition. The two sidewalls are set as periodic boundary Ref. [17]), and is given by

Fig. 3. The close-up views of the meshes of the V-shaped ribs and DWVGs pair.

4
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al. Energy 224 (2021) 119944

Table 1
Mesh independence validation.

Nodes 2,171,268 3,038,392 49,725,112 6,472,512 7,005,388 8,393,992

Nu 74.44 73.44 74.09 74.11 74.12 74.32

Dp (Pa) 13.55 12.96 12.93 13.01 12.94 12.91

heaters. Consequently, it is appropriate to choose the RNG k-e tur-

Nu0 ¼ 0:023Re0:8 Pr 0:4 (14) bulence model to calculate the flow and heat transfer processes.
The friction factor in a smooth duct can be obtained by the
following correlation (see, for example, Ref. [17])

f0 ¼ 0:3164Re0:25 (15) 3.6. Topological analysis

The Q criterion [18] is defined as A topological analysis method of two-dimensional skin-friction

"

2
2 # fields is a powerful tool to qualitatively recognize the evolution of
1 vu 2 vv vw vu vv vu vw vv vw three-dimensional vortices. Poincare  [23] proposed the critical
Q¼ þ þ   
2 vx vy vz vy vx vz vx vz vy point theory to classify the characteristics of the integral curves of
the differential equations in a general homogeneous system.
(16)
Inspired by this theory, Legendre [24] extended it to the three-
where u, v, w are the velocities in the x-, y-, z-directions, dimensional separation flow in a skin-friction field. The definition
respectively. of the skin-friction line can be written as:

v ty
3.5. CFD validation j ¼ (17)
u z/0 tx
To ensure the accuracy of the numerical simulation, it is
where the surface-normal coordinate is z, the v and the ty are the
essential to verify the turbulence model based on the experimental
velocity and shear stress components in the y-direction. The u and
work. As the geometry is derived from the experimental study of
the tx are the velocity and shear stress components in the x-
Sharma et al. [16] is quite similar to that in the present study, one of
direction.
their models, i.e., 90
truncated ribs array placed on the absorber
At a critical point in the skin-friction field, the two wall shear
plate in a solar air heater, is used to verify the accuracy of the tur-
stress components vanish simultaneously:
bulence model. The Reynolds number ranges from 4000 to 16,000
based on the experimental set up. Fig. 4 shows the area-average
du
Nusselt number on the absorber plate CFD calculation and experi- tx ¼ m j (18)
mental study among 12 different Reynolds numbers. The results dz z/0
show that the calculations are in good agreement with the exper-
imental work although a slight under-prediction occurs for high
Reynolds number. The maximum deviation and the average devi-
ation among all Reynolds numbers are 10.1% and 7.6%, respectively.
In addition, for similar physical conditions, the RNG k-e turbulence
model has been selected in a variety of literatures [19e22] to
calculate the heat transfer and flow phenomena in the solar air

Fig. 4. The average Nu number with Re number ranging from 4000 to 16,000 between
CFD and experimental work. Fig. 5. Classification of critical points in a (det A-tr A) plane [24].

5
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al. Energy 224 (2021) 119944

Fig. 6. Temperature distributions on the absorber plate for the smooth plate, Case A, Case B and Case C, at Re ¼ 12,000.

Fig. 7. (a) TKE-colored 2D streamlines on the four cut planes along the streamwise direction in Case A; (b) Thickness changes of the flow boundary layer along the streamwise
direction in Case A.

6
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al. Energy 224 (2021) 119944

Fig. 8. Flow structures between Case B and Case C.

Fig. 9. Three-dimensional flow fields through the first rib and comparison between Case B and Case C.

7
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al. Energy 224 (2021) 119944

Fig. 10. Cartoon sketch of the evolution of the vortices among (a) only DWVGs; (b) only ribs; and (c) Case C.



d x x
¼A (20)
dt y y

dv where A is a Jacobian matrix which is given by:

ty ¼ m j (19)
dz z/0 0 1
vtx vtx
where the m is the dynamic viscosity (Pa s). B vx vy C
B C
The solution of the shear stress in the vicinity of the critical A¼ B C (21)
@ vty vty A
point is sought via a first order Taylor series expansion. After some
vx vy
algebraic operations, eq. (17) can be written as an ordinary differ-
ential equation: The solution of eq. (20) can be sketched in a phase plane. The

Fig. 11. Comparison of temperature distributions at the outlet section among smooth channel, Case A, Case B and Case C, respectively.

8
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al. Energy 224 (2021) 119944

(1) Saddle (the eigenvalues are real and have opposite signs):
some of the solution curves approach towards the point
while some of them eminate away from the point.
(2) Node (the eigenvalues are real and have same sign): if two
eigenvalues have positive signs, this node is called an
attachment node. If they are negative, this node is called a
separation node.
(3) Spiral (complex eigenvalues): the solution curves rotate
around it to form a vortex.

The different flow patterns of the skin-friction lines can be

drawn in a (det A-tr A) plane shown in Fig. 5 [24]. Some flow physics
are interpreted by using topological analysis method in many
previous research [25e28].

4. Results and discussions

4.1. Mixing effect of longitudinal and transverse vortices

In this section, the combined effect of longitudinal vortices

induced by DWVGs and the transverse vortices induced by the ribs
are discussed. Fig. 6 shows the temperature contours on the
absorber plate among the smooth plate, Case A, Case B, and Case C,
respectively. As shown in Fig. 6a, the temperature increases with
the distance from the inlet. This means that the heat transfer de-
creases as the fluid flows backward. With the arrangement of the
DWVGs pair, the temperature behind it drops and a low tempera-
ture region persists over a long distance. Fig. 6c shows the tem-
perature distribution of the absorber plate fitted with only 90-deg
Fig. 12. Comparison of temperature distributions on the absorber plate among Case 2, ribs. The temperature decreases obviously between each couple of
Case 3, Case 4 and Case 5. ribs. As shown in Fig. 6d, the arrangement of both ribs and DWVGs
pair can significantly enhance the turbulence intensity of the
absorber plate, and thus enhance the local heat transfer. The tem-
types and signs of the eighenvalues of A control the pattern of the perature between each couple of ribs decreases compared with the
skin-friction lines in the vicinity of the critical points. Thus one first three cases.
writes: Many previous studies focused on the advantanges of the
DWVGs on the heat transfer enhancement, and it has basically
become a consensus that DWVGs can induce counter-rotating
vortices. According to the research objective of this study, Fig. 7a
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi shows the 2D streamlines on the four cutplanes along the
trA ± ðtrAÞ2  4,ðdetAÞ streamwise direction. The distance from the back edge of the
l1;2 ¼ (22) DWVGs are 0.21Dh, 0.68Dh , 1.38Dh , and 2.36Dh , respectively. It is
2
seen that the two counter-rotating vortex pair can be captured in
where tr A denotes trace of matrix A, and the det is the determinant each figure. Based on the rotation direction of the vortex pair, the
of A. With this, the major critical points can be classified as: flow type is usually called common-flow-down and this

Fig. 13. Comparison of evolution of vortices based on the Q-criterion between Case 2 and Case 3.

9
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al.
Fig. 14. Comparison of velocity-colored streamlines at 0.05 mm away from the absorber plate and shear stress on the absorber plate between first three ribs in Case 2, Case 3 and
Case 4.
arrangement of the DWVGs is called common-flow-down config-
uration. According to the TKE-colored streamlines, the intensity of
the vortices is weakened and shifted to both sides.
To understand the reason for the heat transfer enhancement,
the thickness distributions of the flow boundary layer on the cut-
planes mentioned above along the streamwise direction are drawn
in Fig. 7b which is set from the inlet view. From the thickness
changes of the flow boundary layer downstream of the DWVGs pair,
the thickness of the boundary layer is reduced as the flow advances
and moves to both sides, while the thickness of the center part
increases slowly. It should be noted that the weakening of the
thickness of the boundary layer contributes to the enhancement of
heat transfer. Hence, the counter-rotating vortex pair induced by
DWVGs carries the fluid to both sides, weakens the thickness of the
boundary layer, but causes accumulation of the boundary layer at
10
Energy 224 (2021) 119944
the centerline. In other words, the vortex provides a pair of reverse
driving forces, and the intensity decreases as the flow progresses.
For 90
continuous ribs, transverse vortices can be induced by
the ribs based on previous studies. In this case, velocity-colored
streamlines on the mid-cutplane of the channel are drawn to
capture the transverse vortices as shown in Fig. 8. The transverse
vortex exists between the ribs, and the shear force caused by the
rotating vortex reduces the thickness of the boundary layer and
then enhances the local heat transfer. The flow intensity is weak-
ened by the ribs, and the transverse vortex gradually splits into two
small scale of vortices due to the downwash of the main stream
after passing the first two ribs.
The flow and heat transfer between ribs will be significantly
changed by placing DWVGs in front of the 90
continuous ribs.
Fig. 8d shows the streamlines on the four cutplanes along the
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al.
Fig. 15. Topological portrait (b) on the absorber plate between the first two ribs based on skin-friction lines (a) in Case 4.
streamwise direction. The distances from the back edge of the
DWVGs are 0.58Dh , 0.72Dh , 0.77Dh, and 1.00Dh , respectively. It is
found that the counter-rotating vortex pair induced by the DWVGs
pair can still be captured in each section of streamlines. The loca-
tion of the vortex pair is lifted by the ribs and the longitudinal
vortex pair pushes the transverse vortex between the ribs and then
occupy the whole section. In addition, the turbulence intensity near
the rib top is obviously higher than in the other regions.
Fig. 8b and c shows the shear stress distribution and skin-
friction lines on the absorber plate between Case B and Case C. In
the only 90
continuous ribs case, the flow direction is parallel to
the reflux direction as shown in Fig. 12a. In Case C, the shear force
on the absorber plate in front of the first ribs is stronger than in the
same region for Case B. The strong shear force is dominated by the
longitudinal vortices. In addition, after placing the DWVGs pair in
front of the ribs, the direction of the back flow between the ribs is
clearly changed. The flow direction gradually shifts to both sides,
and the shear effect at the flow-diverging region is also enhanced.
Combined with Fig. 8d, it can be found that the transverse vortices
deviate due to influence of the longitudinal vortices which domi-
nate before the rear ribs are reached.
Fig. 9a presents the three-dimensional flow around the first two
ribs in Case C. The fluid between the pair of DWVGs is accelerated.
Some of the fluid are blocked by the first rib and rotate to both sides
11
Energy 224 (2021) 119944
while others flow across the first rib and return to the first rib.
Different from the case of pure ribs, this part of the fluid does not
return to the first rib in the original way, but is deflected to both
sides as shown by the red arrows. The fluid then rotates to form a
deviated transverse vortex and finally crosses the second rib.
To compare the turbulence intensity between Case B and Case C,
the TKE contours on the mid-plane along the streamwise direction
are given in Fig. 9. As shown in Fig. 9b, the turbulence intensity
between the first and second ribs is stronger than in other regions,
but then it weakens rapidly. The tubulence intensity changes
slightly among the second, third and fourth ribs. In Fig. 9c, the
turbulence between the first two ribs is a little stronger than in Case
B. Due to the influence of the longitudinal vortices, the turbulence
is enhanced between the last few ribs.
Fig. 9b and c also present the TKE-colored Q invariant in the
ribbed channel with and without the DWVGs pair. As shown in
Fig. 9a, vortices are observed at the rear of each rib and the vortices
at the rear of the first rib shows the highest strength which is
consistent with the above discussion. When the DWVGs pair are
installed in front of the ribs, a counter-rotating vortex pair can be
observed at the rear of the DWVGs pair and then it crosses the ribs.
Simultaneously, the strength of the transverse vortices between the
ribs are also enhanced by the counter-rotating vortices.
Based on the previous disscussions, a cartoon sketch of the
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al.
Fig. 16. Three-dimensional streamlines and a cartoon sketch of the vortices evolution passing through the first rib in Case 4.
longitudinal, transverse and mixing vortices are drawn in Fig. 10 to
better illustrate the evolution of the vortices. As shown in Fig. 10a,
the present configuration of the DWVGs pair can induces common-
flow-down counter-rotating vortex pair at the rear of the DWVGs
pair, which presists over a long distance. Besides, the location of the
two vortices gradually move away from one another. The shearing
effect of the vortex pair can reduce the local boundary layer
thickness and then enhance the local heat transfer but with a
penalty of enhancing the thickness of the boundary layer between
the vortex pair. In Fig. 10b, the rib array can induce a transverse
vortex between adjacent two ribs. The fluid crosses the first rib and
then impinges on the second rib. After that, the fluid comes straight
back to the first rib and form a transverse vortex. The direction of
the back flow is parallel to the main flow direction. Fig. 10c provides
the mixing effect of these two vortices. The common-flow-down
longitudinal vortices continuously change the direction of the
near-wall transverse vortices and make them shift to both sides.
The bending effect of the transverse vortices and the shear force
near the second rib is stronger than that near the first rib, which is
beneficial for the local heat transfer.
For a solar air heater, the mixing effect of the cold and hot
temperatures at the outlet is also very important. Fig. 11 shows the
temperature distribution at the outlet section among smooth
channel, Case A, Case B, and Case C, respectively. It is reasonable
that the temperature near the heated plate, i.e., the absorber plate,
is the highest over the whole outlet section. As shown in Fig. 11b,
the arrangement of only 90
continuous ribs enhances the mixing
and the high temperature zone expands regularly. However, with
12
Energy 224 (2021) 119944
only the DWVGs fitted on the absorber plate, a different trend is
observed. The temperature mixing on both sides is better than that
between the DWVGs pair. A further inspection of Case C shows that
the temperature distribution is similar with the Case A, but the
range of the influence expands distinctively. This indicates that two
types of vortices can effectively enhance the heat transfer and the
mixing effect of the temperature at the cold and hot side.
4.2. Effect of shape types of ribs combined with DWVGs
Based on the previous discussions, the 90
continuous ribs
combined with DWVGs pair help to enhance the heat transfer and
the mixing of cold and hot fluids. In this section, the shape types of
ribs will be taken into account together with the DWVGs fitted on
the absorber plate. Four different types of ribs are included, i.e., 90

continuous ribs, 90
truncated ribs, 60
V-shaped continuous ribs,
and 60
V-shaped truncated ribs. Fig. 12 presents temperature
distributions on the absorber plate for different rib configurations.
It is found that the shape types of the rib array have significant
impact on the temperature distribution on the absorber plate. For
truncated ribs in Case 2 and Case 3, the temperature of the fluid is
lower than in other parts when it crosses the edge of the straight
and V-shaped ribs. Furthermore, the temperature near the two
sides also slightly decreases in the V-shaped truncated ribs. Among
them the overall temperature of the V-shaped continuous ribs
combined with DWVGs pair is lower than that of the other cases.
Although these have a little higher temperature at the rear of the V-
shaped ribs in Case 4, the temperature near the two sides drops
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al. Energy 224 (2021) 119944

Fig. 17. Three-dimensional streamlines and the velocity field from the inlet view.

Fig. 18. Comparison of temperature distributions at the outlet section among Case 1, Case 2, Case 3 and Case 4, respectively.

substantially compared with other cases.
For the truncated cases, identification of vortices based on the Q
criterion is presented in Fig. 13. It is found that the turbulence
strength is augmented by the 90
and 60
V-shaped truncated ribs
especially at the downstream of the middle part of the ribs. As
shown in Fig. 13b, a small amount of the counter-rotating vortex
pairs emerges after the first V-shaped truncated ribs at the center
line in Case 3. The counter-rotating vortex pairs continuously
persist for a long distance above the V-shaped truncated ribs.
Fig. 14 illustrates the velocity-colored limiting streamlines and
shear force on the absorber plate. It can be seen that the flow
structures are quite different for the two rib types. In general, the

13
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al.
Fig. 19. Comparison of Nu number distributions among Case A, Case B, Case C(Case 1), Case 2, Case 3, Case 4 at Re ¼ 12,000.
Fig. 20. Comparison of dimensionless average Nu numbers on the absorber plate
among Case A, Case B, Case C(Case 1), Case 2, Case 3, Case 4, respectively.
truncated ribs (straight and V-shape) have a local influence on the
fluid in the vicinity of the rib gap. Firstly, the fluid in the gap is
accelerated. The velocity of the fluid is higher than that of the fluid
nearby for both straight and V-shaped ribs. Secondly, two separated
spiral nodes are formed in the gap, for example, Ns1 , Ns2 and Nsa1 ,
Nsa2 . This indicates that the fluid is accelerated in the gap, rotating
across the ribs gap and then lifted off from the plate. Thirdly, the
accelerated fluid in the gap leads to a relatively high local shear
stress in Case 2 and Case 3, which helps to enhance the local heat
transfer. To better illustrate the influence range of the truncated
ribs, red curves are used to label the region influenced by the
separated spiral nodes. In Case 2, the affected region (A) can be
expressed by saddle points and nodes, i.e.,
Ls1 /S1 /Ns1 4Ns2 )S2 )Ls1 and Ls1 /S1 /Ns3 4Ns4 )S2 )Ls1 .
In Case 3, the region B and the region C is
Ls3 /Nsa1 4Nsa2 )S3 )Ls3 and S4 /Nsa3 4Nsa4 )S4 , respectively.
As shown in Fig. 20, the region A and regions B and C represent the
separation regions induced by the separated flow. The axis direc-
tion is almost perpendicular to the plate.
Apart from the region influenced by the truncated gap, other
14
Energy 224 (2021) 119944
Fig. 21. Comparison of dimensionless friction factors among Case A, Case B, Case C
(Case 1), Case 2, Case 3, Case 4, respectively.
regions marked as H, I, J, and K represent the flow induced by the
ribs. In Fig. 14a, the highest shear stress exists at the middle of the
plate between the ribs in region H. The back flow direction is nearly
parallel to the main flow direction which is consistent with the
previous discussion. The region I is compressed by the region A and
shrinks clearly where the shear force shows a relatively low value.
In Fig. 14b, the region K and the region J are divided by the
attachment line Ls4 which can be attributed to the separated flow in
region B and C. Thus, the strength of the vortex is also reduced due
to the truncated gap as shown in regions K and J. The shear stress in
the region J shows a relatively high value compared to the other
regions.
As discussed above, the region J and the region K are combined
together and then represent a relative strong shear force as shown
in Fig. 14c. The interval flow direction becomes nearly perpendic-
ular to the main flow direction. The fluid on both sides converges to
the middle and lift off the surface along the separation lines Ls5 and
Ls6 . Fig. 14c also presents the vortices evolution based on the Q-
criterion in Case 4. The counter-rotating vortex pair can still be
found above the middle of the V-shaped ribs. In addition, strong
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al.
Fig. 22. Comparison of thermal performance between Case 1, Case 2, Case 3, and Case
4.
Fig. 23. Comparison of current configurations and published turbulators.
vortices are also formed along the back wall of the two branches of
the V-shaped ribs.
To better understand the flow physics near the V-shaped
continuous ribs, the skin-friction lines and the topological portrait
on the absorber plate between the first two V-shaped ribs are
drawn in Fig. 15. It should be noted that the topological portrait of
Fig. 15b is drawn according to the flow trend in Fig. 15a. In Fig. 15b,
the red line represents the attachment line while the green line is
the separation line. Firstly, the attachment nodes Na2 can be clearly
found near the corner of the V-shaped ribs. It indicates that the
fluid impinges on the plate and then spread around the node. A part
of the fluid flows back to the first rib and is compressed by the fluid
in the region JK as mentioned before. Secondly, the attachment
node Na1 can be found near both sides which means that after the
fluid crosses the first rib, some part of it impinges on the plate at the
node Na1 and then flows back to the first rib. This part of the fluid
lifts off the plate along the separation line Ls5 . In the region M, the
border La1 and the Ls5 form a near-wall local vortex which starts
from the Na2 and separates along the Ls5 . However, the fluid carried
by this part of the vortex is a secondary flow, which is also a low-
energy fluid cluster. It is downwashed by the main reflux.
The main reflux emerges in the region JK. The border La2 and the
Ls5 forms vortices which start from the Na1 and separates along the
15
Energy 224 (2021) 119944
Fig. 24. Performance evaluations of heater with differently shaped ribs combined with
DWVGs.
Ls5 . These vortices are induced by the mixing effect of the 60
V-
shaped ribs and the DWVGs pair. It is noted that the main refux
contributes to a high shear stress which is benefical for the local
heat transfer enhancement.
In order to observe the evolution of the vortices in region JK,
three-dimensional streamlines around the first ribs are presented
in Fig. 16. It is found that the fluid impinges on the both sides at Na1
firstly and flows along the separation line Ls1 and then lifts off from
the plate. After that the fluid rotates to form a vortex V2 and then it
crosses the middle of the V-shaped ribs. This vortex pair is a
common-flow-up vortex type.
Fig. 16b shows the cartoon sketch of the vortices evolution based
on the above discussions in Case 4. Three types of vortices can be
found in this figure. The first one is the common-flow-down vortex
pair V1 which is induced by the DWVGs pair. The vortex pair V1
which is elevated by the ribs flows across the V-shaped ribs and
then gradually moves away from one another and flows towards
the outlet. The second one is the common-flow-up vortex pair V2
which is mainly induced by the V-shaped ribs. The fluid rotates
between the attachment line La2 and separation line LS1 and lifts off
the plate and forms the vortex V2 . This is the source of the vortex
pair captured in Fig. 14c.
To compare the influence factor of the vortices evolution, the
pure V-shaped ribs case is considered as shown in Fig. 17b. Fig. 17
presents the three-dimensional streamlines around the first two
ribs and the longitudinal vortices induced by DWVGs (Fig. 17a)
between Case 4 and the pure ribs from the 2D inlet view. It is found
that two types of the counter-rotating vortex pairs can interact with
each other to enhance the turbulence which is benefical for the
heat transfer augmentation.
Fig. 18 shows the temperature distributions at outlet among
Case 1, Case 2, Case 3 and Case 4, respectively. The effect of trun-
cated straight ribs on the temperature mixing is not obvious, or is
even weakened slightly. In Case 3, the best temperature mixing
occurs in the middle of the outlet region while the temperature
mixing at both sides is reduced slightly compared with Case 1.
Among these distribution, the temperature mixing in Case 4 shows
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al.
a better mixing although the outlet temperature at the middle of
the V-shaped ribs is reduced clearly which may be attributed to the
short distance between the ribs and outlet.
4.3. Thermal performance evaluations
Fig. 19 shows the Nusselt number distributions on the absorber
plate for the different cases. Among the four different configura-
tions of the ribs combined with DWVGs pair, the 60
continuous V-
shaped ribs provide the highest heat transfer coefficient due to the
mixing effect of the longitudinal and transverse vortices induced by
the V-shaped ribs and DWVGs pair. In addition, 90
truncated ribs
(Case 2) enhance the local heat transfer at the edge of the ribs and
in the vicinity of the middle of the ribs compared with Case 1.
However, the 60
V-shaped truncated ribs inhibit the local heat
transfer between the ribs. According to the previous discussions,
the inhibit region is attributed to the separation spiral nodes
around the gap in regions B and C.
Fig. 20 compares the dimensionless Nu numbers on the
absorber plate among the different cases. The ability of placing only
DWVGs pair or only ribs to enhance the heat transfer is lower than
that of the mixed arrangement for all Re numbers. Only ribs provide
higher heat transfer performance at low Re number than only
DWVGs pair, but this decreases significantly as the Re number in-
creases while DWVGs present a more stable change. Case 4, i.e., V-
shaped ribs combined with DWVGs, provide the best heat transfer
performance among all studied cases at different Reynolds
numbers.
However, the introduction of the DWVGs pair can increase the
pressure drop penalty as shown in Fig. 21. For mixed arrangement
of these two types of turbulators, the 90
truncated rib array
combined with DWVGs shows the lowest pressure drops, while the
arrangement of V-shaped continuous ribs together with DWVGs
maintain high values of the pressure drop.
To evaluate the overall thermal performance, ðNu =Nu0 Þ= ðf =f0 Þ3
1
[29] is used to estimate the performance of the enhanced heat
transfer for Case 1, Case 2, Case 3, and Case 4. As shown in Fig. 22,
the 60
V-shaped continuous/truncated ribs combined with
DWVGs pair present higher thermal performance than the 90
ribs
cases. For 60
V-shaped cases, the thermal performance of the
truncated cases is slightly higher than for the continuous cases at
different Reynolds numbers. In conclusion, the introduction of
vortex generators can effectively enhance the thermal performance
in a ribbed channel.
Fig. 23 compares the normalized Nu number using seven
different turbulators including pin fins, ribs, and dimples, etc. in a
duct with that of current vortex generators [30]. It is found that the
smooth and roughened ducts have lower friction factors, but also
are accompanied by lower heat transfer capacity. Ribbed and pin
finned ducts can obviously increase the pressure drop in the duct
although the heat transfer is accordingly enhanced. The normalized
friction factor is augmented by up to four times the current cases.
Besides, the dimple case can obtain higher heat transfer at lower
flow resistance compared the current vortex generator case.
A performance evaluation method of heat transfer enhance-
ment [31] is introduced as shown in Fig. 24. This figure is divided
into four regions. The points we studied fall into the first three
regions. The region 1 tells that the heat transfer is enhanced
without any energy-saving. In other words, the power consumption
is greater than the increase of the heat transfer rate. The region 2 is
characterized by enhanced heat transfer at the same pumping
power consumption. Region 3 is featured by enhanced heat transfer
for an identical pressure drop constraint. As shown in Fig. 24, most
of the points of only ribs case (Case B) and Case 1 are located in
16
Energy 224 (2021) 119944
region 1, which means that the enhanced heat transfer consumes
more power, which is not good for energy saving. However, the
points move towards to region 2 as the 90
truncated and 60
V-
shaped ribs are introduced in the solar air heater. This indicates that
the heat transfer can be enhanced as identical pumping power
consumption is maintained. Among these five cases, both Case 3
and Case 4 are promoted to region 3, which means that the com-
bination of V-shaped ribs and DWVGs pair is suitable and mean-
ingful in improving the performance by heat transfer
augmentation.
5. Conclusions
The present study aimed to study how the array of differently
shaped ribs affects the heat transfer and flow structures in a solar
air heater channel with DWVGs pair. The main conclusions are
summarized as follows:
(1) The counter rotating vortices induced by DWVGs pair can
provide the transverse reverse driving force to reduce the
thickness of the boundary layer which promotes enhance-
ment of the local heat transfer. The transverse vortices
caused by the ribs can enhance the heat transfer downstream
of the ribs.
(2) The combination of DWVGs and ribs can effectively enhance
the heat transfer by intensifying the turbulence because the
driving force caused by longitudinal vortices can change the
direction of the back flow induced by the ribs.
(3) The shape of the ribs has a great impact on the flow and heat
transfer of the absorber plate in the solar air heater. Among
the studied cases, the 60
V-shaped ribs combined with the
DWVGs pair provide the highest heat transfer performance
with certain pressure drop penalty. The maximum
augmentation of the heat transfer is achieved as 39.4%
compared to the case of only DWVGs pair.
The detailed heat transfer coefficient distributions and flow
physics are presented in this study. These help to understand the
mechanism of enhanced heat transfer. Moreover, deep and sys-
tematic topological analysis, which is commonly used in fluid dy-
namics, is first applied in solar energy to better illustrate the
evolution of vortices and the process of augmented heat transfer.
The results of this study is useful for understanding the mixing
process of hot- and cold-side air and for efficient design of solar air
heaters.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Harbin Institute of Technology
Scholarship Fund; the National Natural Science Foundation of China
[grant number 51706051]; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
funded project [grant number 2017M620116]; and China Post-
doctoral Science Foundation funded project [grant number
2017M621268]. The computations were performed on resources
provided by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing
(SNIC) at LUNARC and partially funded by the Swedish Research
Council.
Z. Zhao, L. Luo, D. Qiu et al. Energy 224 (2021) 119944

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