Numerical Analysis on Two-Dimensional Flow and Heat Transfer of Louvered Fins Using Overlaid Grids

Abstract

Using an overlaid grids method, we performed finite difference analysis on two-dimensional flow and heat transfer characteristics of louvered fins which constitute automotive heat exchangers used in forced convection regimes at low Reynolds numbers. In this method, the physical domain is subdivided into certain regions which can easily be represented by Cartesian grids. The maximum total number of the grid points allocated nonuniformly in the respective regions is about 100000. Communication between the grids is accomplished by bilinear interpolation of the dependent variables at grid boundaries. The iterative computation required 30-60 minutes of CPU time on the NEC SX-2 supercomputer. In the range of Re=64-450, the present numerical scheme was validated through comparison of numerical results and corresponding experimental data which were also obtained in the present study.