Computational study of flow-induced vibration of a reed in a channel and effect on convective heat transfer

Abstract

The flow-induced fluttering motion of a flexible reed inside a heated channel is modeled numerically and used to investigate the relationship between the aeroelastic vibration of the reed and heat-transfer enhancement. An immersed boundary method is developed to solve the coupled flow-structure-thermal problem, and the simulations show that the vibrating reed significantly increases the mean heat flux through the channel, as well as the thermal performance, quantified in terms of the thermal enhancement factor. The effect of reed material properties on vibratory dynamics and heat transfer is studied. Changes in material properties produce a rich variety of vibratory behavior, and the thermal performance is found to depend more strongly on the reed inertia than its bending stiffness. The effects of both the Reynolds number and channel confinement are examined and it is found that the thermal performance is maximized when the reed creates large modulations in the boundary layer of the channel, while at the same time avoiding the creation of strong vortices.