Performance evaluation of branching and impacting tee junctions for laminar forced-convection applications

The governing equations for mass, momentum, and energy conservation have been solved numerically for laminar forced convection in two-dimensional branching and impacting tee junctions. The resulting velocity, temperature, and pressure fields were used in computing important engineering parameters, such as the wall shear stress, wall heat flux, pumping power, and excess heat transfer. These parameters are presented for the two junctions in a comparative fashion over a wide range of mass splits and two values of the inlet Reynolds number. It is shown that the two junctions may have similar distributions of wall shear stress and wall heat flux at certain flow splits. Results of the performance evaluation can guide the designer in selecting the appropriate configuration (branching or impacting) based on the pumping power requirement, excess heat transfer, or excess heat transfer per unit pumping power. (C) 2003 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.