Experimental study of thermal behaviors in a rectangular channel with baffle of pores

Abstract This experimental study attempts to explore the local heat transfer in rectangular channel with baffles, and analyzes the experimental results of baffles with different heights and pores in the event of five Reynolds numbers and three heating quantities. Apart from increasing the perturbation of flow field, the channel's flow field with baffles, which is similar to a backward-facing step flow field, is very helpful to heat transfer. To obtain an optimized baffle and increase the perturbation of flow field, this experiment employed baffles with five heights ( H  = 10–50 mm) and different numbers of pores ( N  = 1–3), as well as heat flux: Q  = 40–100 l/min, Reynolds number: 702–1752, and heating quantity: q in  = 90–750 W/m 2 . In addition to measurement of overall temperature distribution, emphasis is also placed on analysis of local heat transfer coefficient. Furthermore, heat transfer distribution of channel can be applied to explain how the baffles of pores have an influence upon backward-facing step flow field, shear layer, recirculation region, reattachment region and redeveloped boundary layer. Finally, some empirical formulas derived form experimental results may provide a reference for future design.