Numerical Simulation of Turbulent Mixed Convection Heat Transfer in a Vertical Flat Channel for Aiding Flows

Numerical simulation of heat transfer and velocity-temperature profiles for a two-sided symmetrically heated vertical flat channel was performed using the low-Reynolds number Chen-Kim and Lam-Bremhorst k-epsilon turbulence models in a wide range of buoyancy parameters. Modeling results are in good agreement with experimental data on heat transfer for high values of the buoyancy parameter Bo = Gr(q)/((RePr0.8)-Pr-3.425). When the effect of buoyancy is small, the Lam-Bremhorst model gives better results than the Chen-Kim model, but in both cases the disagreement with experimental data is rather big. Tendencies in the dynamics of temperature profiles with increasing the buoyancy parameter Bo are the same as in experiments, but the dynamics of velocity profiles is different.