Temporal modulation on mixed convection in turbulent channels

TL;DR

This study investigates how temporally modulated wall temperatures affect flow structures and heat transfer in turbulent mixed convection channels, revealing frequency-dependent impacts on flow stability, heat transfer efficiency, and turbulence characteristics.

Contribution

The paper provides new insights into the effects of wall temperature modulation frequency on turbulent flow organization and heat transfer in mixed convection channels through detailed DNS analysis.

Findings

Low-frequency oscillations induce stable stratified layers.

Nusselt number increases up to 96% with decreasing frequency.

High-frequency modulation enhances near-wall turbulence.

Abstract

We studied flow organization and heat transfer properties in mixed turbulent convection within Poiseuille-Rayleigh-B\'enard channels subjected to temporally modulated sinusoidal wall temperatures. Three-dimensional direct numerical simulations were performed for Rayleigh numbers in the range $10^6 \leq Ra \leq 10^8$, a Prandtl number $Pr = 0.71$ and a bulk Reynolds number $Re_b \approx 5623$. We found that high-frequency wall temperature oscillations had minimal impact on flow structures, while low-frequency oscillations induced adaptive changes, forming stable stratified layers during cooling. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis revealed a dominant streamwise unidirectional shear flow mode. Large-scale rolls oriented in the streamwise direction appeared as higher POD modes and were significantly influenced by lower-frequency wall temperature variations. Long-time-averaged statistics showed that the Nusselt number increased with decreasing frequency by up to 96\%, while the friction coefficient varied by less than 15\%. High-frequency modulation predominantly influenced near-wall regions, enhancing convective effects, whereas low frequencies reduced these effects via stable stratified layer formation. Phase-averaged statistics showed that high-frequency modulation resulted in phase-stable streamwise velocity and temperature profiles, while low-frequency modulation caused significant variations due to weakened turbulence. Turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) profiles remained high near the wall during both heating and cooling at high frequency, but decreased during cooling at low frequencies. A TKE budget analysis revealed that during heating, TKE production was dominated by shear near the wall and by buoyancy in the bulk region; while during cooling, the production, distribution and dissipation of TKE were all nearly zero.