Enhancement of heat exchange in a wavy channel linked to a porous domain; a possible duct geometry for fuel cells

In this paper heat transfer and flow field analysis in a wavy channel linked to a porous Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL) is numerically studied. The domain is very similar to our earlier computations of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (see Khakbaz-Baboli and Kermani (2008)). The fluid temperature at the channel inlet (T-in) is taken less than that of the walls (T-w). The governing equations are numerically solved in the domain by the control volume approach based on the SIMPLE technique (1972). A wide spectrum of numerical studies is performed over a range of Reynolds number Re-H: 100 <= Re-H <= 1000, wave number beta: 0 <=beta <= 10, the wave amplitude alpha: 0 <=alpha <= 0.3 and Darcy number Da: 0.1 <= Da <= 0.001. Simulations show that heat transfer in channels can enhance up to 100%, depending on the duct alpha, beta and flow Re-H. Computations show excellent agreement with the literature. The present work can provide helpful guidelines to the manufactures of the compact heat exchangers. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.