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 (Tin) is taken less than that of the walls (Tw). 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 ReH: 100 ≤ ReH ≤ 1000, wave number β: 0 ≤ β ≤ 10, the wave amplitude α: 0 ≤ α ≤ 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 α, β and flow ReH. Computations show excellent agreement with the literature. The present work can provide helpful guidelines to the manufactures of the compact heat exchangers.