Simulación numérica de la convección mixta en un canal horizontal con aletas

• A numerical simulation for mixed convective airflow through a horizontal finned channel was carried out by means of a MATLAB^® code. Steady state and two dimensional conditions are considered for solving the problem. The discretization technique used was the finite volume and the SIMPLE (Semi-Implicit Pressure Linked Equations) algorithm was used to link the pressure and velocity fields inside the computational domain. The simulation was run for several fluid flow parameters (Re=50, 100 and 200) and a temperature difference between the hot wall and the fluid temperature at the inlet which results in Richardson from Ri=0 to Ri=4.16, then the results are for forced, natural and mixed convective flow regimes. As results are found that the local Nusselt number and the recirculation zones increase when the Reynolds is augmented and it is inside the recirculation zone where the highest values for the Nusselt are allocated. At higher Richardson the size of the recirculation zones in axial and transversal direction is augmented and also higher magnitudes for vorticity are found.