Numerical Investigation of Convective Heat Transfer in Unsteady Laminar Flow Over a Square Cylinder in a Channel

Unsteady laminar flow past a heated square cylinder mounted inside a plane channel was investigated numerically. The blockage ratio was chosen as 1/8 and the Reynolds number based on the mean flow velocity and chord length of the square cylinder was selected as less than 200, for which the two-dimensional behavior of the flow is assured. The time-averaged Nusselt number as well as some integral parameters such as drag coefficient, recirculation length, and Strouhal number were obtained and compared with literature. Results show a nearly linear increase in recirculation length and decrease in drag coefficient with increasing Reynolds number for the steady flow regime. There is an increase in the total Nusselt number and drag coefficient with a Reynolds number for unsteady flow regime, where vortex shedding is observed from the cylinder. A correlation was obtained for the variation of the total Nusselt number with the Reynolds number.