Effect of inlet conditions on air flow in convergent channel with a heated wall

The paper presents a numerical modeling of an effect of the inlet profiled section of a channel on an air flow in a convergent channel with a heated bottom wall. The simulation was performed in the OpenFOAM software with using Navier-Stokes equations supplemented with k-omega SST turbulence model. Authors carried out a test on mesh convergence and a comparison with experimental data. It is shown that the presence of the inlet section under the quasi-isothermal conditions at the wall heat flux of 1 kW/m2 improves the coincidence between the simulated and experimental data in the beginning of the convergent channel, and it has no effect on the downstream flow. Also, the study demonstrates that the inlet section has a strong influence over the whole convergent channel on the air flow at the wall heat flux of 6 kW/m2, reducing the velocity overshoot phenomenon and the laminarization of the boundary layer. At the same time, the inlet turbulence affects on the flow only in the beginning of the convergent channel at both considered values of the wall heat flux.