TY  - EJOU
AU  - Zhang, Chao 
AU  - Yan, Runze 
AU  - Li, Honghui 
AU  - Tang, Qingheng 
AU  - Zhao, Qinghai 

TI  - Experimental and Numerical Study on Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics in Rectangular Channels with Leaf-Shaped Pin Fins
T2  - Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer

PY  - 2025
VL  - 23
IS  - 2
SN  - 2151-8629

AB  - The growing need for enhanced heat dissipation is compelling the development of more effective heat exchangers. Innovation inspired by nature bionics, four types of leaf-shaped pin fins were proposed and four combinations of them were considered. The leaf-shaped design of the cooling pin fin enhances uniformity and synergy, effectively creating an optimized flow path that boosts cooling performance. Eight three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer models in staggered arrangement were developed using ANSYS-Fluent software. Aluminum 6061 material was used as the heat sink material and single-phase liquid water flowed through the rectangular channel where the Reynolds (<i>Re</i>) number varies from 40 to 100. Using the same boundary conditions as the software simulations, two leaf-shaped channels were printed to validate numerical models. Velocity field and temperature differences of the eight proposed leaf-shaped pin fins configurations were discussed by comparison with cylindrical pin fins. Based on the findings of this study, at a Reynolds number of 80, the Leaf B Staggered Array (LBSA) records a maximum temperature that is 0.72 K lower than that of the cylindrical pin fins arrangement. Additionally, the LBSA exhibits a reduction in the friction factor by approximately 33.3% relative to the circular pin fins array under the same <i>Re</i>. This implies that the design of LBSA has been optimized to provide better heat dissipation performance while maintaining lower energy consumption. Furthermore, the LBSA demonstrates the most favorable thermal-hydraulic performance index (TPI), which is 1.18 times higher than that of the circular pin fins arrangement at <i>Re</i> = 80. The temperature reduction and friction factor reduction of the lobed channel is more pronounced than that of the conventional cooling channel, highlighting its potential to increase heat transfer efficiency and reduce energy consumption in practical applications.
KW  - Heat transfer enhancement; leaf-shaped pin fins; rectangular channel; single-phase heat transfer; staggered arrangement

DO  - 10.32604/fhmt.2025.061469