Open AccessAn efficiency of the heat exchange equipment and reducing their weight and size parameters can be considerably improved by using the optimal methods of heat transfer enhancement, which include a two-dimensional roughness, i.e. ribs, backward-facing steps, cavities, etc. deposited on the heat transfer surface. Their shape, sizes and positional relationship have a significant impact on the structure of the boundary layer and its exchange processes.
As known, the most affordable and effective method of controlled influence on the structure of turbulent flow is to create a separation zone or other organized vortex structure in it. In order to successfully use the separation zone, it is necessary to know the mechanism of their interaction with the main turbulent flow and the mechanism of the process in separation zone itself. Heat transfer enhancement is provided mainly due to roughness impact on hydrodynamics of turbulent flow, if the rib height h does not exceed the thickness of the viscous sublayer, since heat transfer enhancement arises from breaking and destruction of viscous sublayer produced by the roughness ribs and emerging vortex zones – sources of turbulence. Usually, the height of ribs y+ ≈ 50, and the distance between them along the streamlined surface is 10-20 times greater. The coefficient of friction also increases, but if the height of ribs is sufficiently small and most of them are in the sublayer, the increase of the friction factor will not exceed the increase of the heat transfer coefficient.
The paper presents results of experimental investigation of hydrodynamics and heat transfer in the separation zone before and after a rib and in the area of two rectangular ribs with the height of y+ £ 60. The ribs are placed on the flat plate and heated according to the law of qw = const. The structure of turbulent boundary layer from the standpoint of the universal logarithmic law of velocity distribution has been experimentally investigated and analyzed.