Augmented Heat Transfer in a Rectangular Channel With Permeable Ribs Mounted on the Wall

Turbulent heat transfer and friction in a rectangular channel with perforated ribs arranged on one of the principal walls are investigated experimentally. The effects of rib open-area ratio, rib pitch-to-height ratio, rib height-to-channel hydraulic diameter ratio, and flow Reynolds number are examined. To facilitate comparison, measurements for conventional solid-type ribs are also conducted. Laser holographic interferometry is employed to determine the rib permeability and measure the heat transfer coefficients of the ribbed wall. Results show that ribs with appropriately high open-area ratio at high Reynolds number range are permeable, and the critical Reynolds number of initiation of flow permeability decreases with increasing rib open-area ratio. By examining the local heat transfer coefficient distributions, it is found that permeable ribbed geometry has an advantage of obviating the possibility of hot spots. In addition, the permeable ribbed geometry provides a higher thermal performance than the solid-type ribbed one, and the best thermal performance occurs when the rib open-area ratio is 0.44. Compact heat transfer and friction correlations are also developed for channels with permeable ribs.