Numerical Simulations of the flow field within a 1:10 Aspect Ratio duct at intermediate Re

Numerical simulations are carried on to study the fluid-dynamical features of a smooth duct with aspect ratio of 10. The duct is operated with an incompressible, newtonian fluid, whose Reynolds number, computed over the hydraulic diameter and bulk velocity, ranges from 470 to 14500, encompassing laminar and turbulent flow. To capture the details of all the flow scales, Direct Numerical Simulations are performed, by means of a code developed at Politecnico di Milano. The adopted code is a finite-difference, structured grid solver, that includes a mass flow rate correction. The latter guarantees high accuracy in the calculation of unsteady flows, or during the transition to turbulent regime, and it allows to check the consistency of numerical results. Both global parameters -including the friction factor and the identification of the laminar-to-turbulent transition and local flow features, e.g., corner vortexes, are investigated and presented in this work. Preliminary analyses agree fairly well with literature data and with experimental results obtained at ThermALab of Politecnico di Milano. The final goal of this work, including a deep integration between the numerical and the experimental setup, is to carry on detailed investigations of the fluid-dynamical and thermal characteristics of ribbed ducts, in the perspective of heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop reduction.