Numerical Investigation of Convective Heat Transfer from a Horizontal Plate Due to the Oscillation of a Vertically Oriented Blade

Convective heat transfer from a flat plate, which is enhanced by an oscillating blade, was numerically investigated at the present study. It was assumed that the blade is made of a rigid and thin plate and it is vertically oriented at the top of the target plate. Numerical analysis was performed using commercial software ANSYS Fluent 6.3 and the periodic oscillation of the blade was modeled by the moving mesh method. Conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy was solved in 2-D and transient form for the laminar airflow with constant physical properties. Constant temperature was considered for the plate and the details of both the flow and thermal fields were determined. The distribution of convective heat transfer coefficient was then calculated for the target plate. The effect of various parameters including the amplitude and frequency of the blade oscillation as well as the geometrical parameters was investigated on the convective heat transfer from the target plate. The results indicated that a wider area of the plate was affected by increasing the oscillation amplitude of the blade. Convective heat transfer was also enhanced over the entire target plate as the rotational Reynolds number was increased.