Numerical investigation of the effect of channel geometry on mixed convection and radiation heat transfer from discrete heat sources

In this study, convective and radiative heat transfer within a horizontal rectangular channel with five discrete heat sources placed at its center is numerically investigated. The aim of the study is to determine the optimal operating and geometric parameters. For this purpose, studies were conducted for three different Richardson numbers ranging from 0.1 to 10 and for 16 different geometries. The numerical studies were carried out using the ANSYS Fluent 2021 R2 software. In the studies conducted, the effects of different configurations on temperature and velocity fields, total Nusselt number, convective Nusselt number, and radiative Nusselt number were examined. As a result of the studies, it was observed that as the Richardson number decreases, the cooling performance on heat sources increases, and at high flow rates, the angle variations on the lower wall of the channel increase the heat transfer. It was observed that the angles of the horizontal walls have significant effects on the heat transfer characteristics.