Influence of inflow disturbances on stagnation-region heat transfer

Abstract

Numerical simulations of laminar stagnation-region heat transfer in the presence of freestream disturbances are performed. The sensitivity of heat transfer in stagnation-region to freestream vorticity is scrutinized by varying the length scale, amplitude, and Reynolds number. As an organized inflow disturbance, a spanwise sinusoidal variation is superimposed on the velocity component normal to the wall. An accurate numerical scheme is employed to integrate the compressible Navier-Stokes equations and energy equation. The main emphasis is placed on the length scale of laminar inflow disturbances, which maximizes the heat transfer enhancement. Computational results are presented to disclose the detailed behavior of streamwise vortices. Three regimes of the behavior are found depending on the length scale: these are the "damping," "attached amplifying," and "detached amplifying" regimes, respectively. The simulation data are analyzed with an experimental correlation. It is found that the present laminar results follow a general trend of the correlation.