FORCED CONVECTION IN CONVERGENT AND DIVERGENT DUCTS OF RECTANGULAR CROSS SECTION

Abstract

This paper describes the simulation of forced convection in convergent and divergent ducts of rectangular cross section. The flow is modeled as being three-dimensional and parabolic, with constant wall temperature. The results show that the pressure drop decreases, while Nusselt number increases, with increasing Reynolds number or increasing aspect ratio. For convergent flows, both pressure drop and Nusselt number increase with convergent angle. For divergent flows, pressure drop may decrease with increasing divergent angle due to the recovery of the static pressure from dynamic pressure, but the variation of local Nusselt number is not so great as that of the convergent duct except in the entrance region.