CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS  
 

VOL. 57, 2017 

A publication of 

 
The Italian Association 

of Chemical Engineering 
Online at www.aidic.it/cet 

Guest Editors: Sauro Pierucci, Jiří Jaromír Klemeš, Laura Piazza, Serafim Bakalis 
Copyright © 2017, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. 

ISBN 978-88-95608- 48-8; ISSN 2283-9216 

Numerical Study on Heat Transfer Enhancement in a 
Rectangular Duct  with Incline Shaped Baffles 

Parkpoom Sriromreun*a, Paranee Sriromreunb 
a Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Srinakharinwirot University, NakhonNayok 26120, 
Thailand  
b Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Srinakharinwirot University, NakhonNayok 26120, Thailand  
prakpum@g.swu.ac.th 

This research is aimed to study on heat transfer enhancement in a heat exchanger by installing inclined shape 
baffles to create co-rotating vortex flow using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method with the k- 
and RNG models. According to the FLUENT program, air is used as the test fluid which consists of the 
rectangular duct with a height (H) of 30 mm, and the Reynolds number (Re) in a range of 12,000 to 35,000. It 
is important to study the Nusselt number, Nu and the friction factor, f in order to earn the result from their 
relation analysed for the Thermal performance Enhancement Factor (TEF).  As a results, the experiment of 
CFD showed a smooth duct and shaped baffles duct (with baffle-to channel-height ratios (e/H) at 0.1, 0.2 and 
0.3 and the angle of attack (α) 30°, 45° and 60°) comparing with another research (Benjapol; et al. 2014). It is 
found that Nu and f are related in a range of -10% to +10%. While the velocity vector and temperature 
contours indicated that the increasing of α and the baffles height can increase co-rotating vortex flow in spite 
of decreasing TEF. The optimum α is 45° with e/H 0.3 which represents the highest TEF at 1.74. 
Keyword: CFD, Heat exchanger, k- model, Inclined baffle 

1. Introduction 

The development of Heat transfer is an essential kind in many industries because there have been highly 
competitive both the production and creation. It is believed that the thermal enhancement technology is 
important to apply in many engineering systems such as a dryer, heat exchanger, refrigeration, automobile 
manufacturing. The technique for heat transfer augmentation is widely used in the industrial heat exchanger 
by installing the tabulators, rib/baffles, fins in order to create co-rotating vortex for increasing convective 
coefficient and leading to higher Thermal performance Enhancement Factor (TEF) [Gentry and Jacob, 2002].  
This study is aimed to investigate the characteristics of heat transfer in various baffle shaped.  For example, 
Karwa [2003] studied on the effect of rectangular ducts with transverse baffles, inclined baffles, 60o V-
continuous and 60o V-discrete patterns. According to the friction, it reported that the V-continuous and the V-
discrete provided the maximum and minimum of friction factor for of all patterns in their work. Tanda [2004] 
found that the V-continuous ribs provided better TEF than the V-discrete ribs. Lau et al. [1991] and 
Promvonge [2010] investigated on the channel with 60° V-baffles influenced on TEF, Lau et al found that the 
range of pitch to baffles height ratios (P/e) = 0.1 provided the highest TEF.  While Promvonge investigated the 
ration between baffles and height (e/H) = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and P/H = 1, 2 and 3 which found that the maximum 
heat will be e/H = 0.1 and P/H = 1provided the highest TEF. Jin et al. [2015] created the numerical method in 
heat transfer on the different angles.  As a result, it reported that 45o provided the highest TEF.  Moreover, 
there are several research investigated about arrangement of baffles such as Layek et al. [2007] investigated 
on heat transfer of duct with baffle related to roughness pitch  and height of baffles or P/e between 4.5 and 10.  
It is reported that P/e of 6 provided the highest TEF. Skullong et al. [2014] studied on the triangular wavy ribs 
which are placed on upper wall at (P/H) 0.5, 1 and 2.  It is found that the ribbed-grooved upper wall at P/H = 
0.5 yields the highest thermal performance. Jedsadaratanachai et al. [2009] studied the heat transfer on a 
square duct with 10, 20, 30 double V-Ribbed strip inserts which found that 10 Double V-Ribbed provided 
highest TEF. Kanoknaikarn et al. [2009] studied on effect of Rib-inclined angle of 30o, 45o, 60o and 90o on 

                               
 
 

 

 
   

                                                  
DOI: 10.3303/CET1757208

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Please cite this article as: Sriromreun P., Sriromreun P., 2017, Numerical study on heat transfer enhancement in a rectangular duct with 
incline shaped baffles, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 57, 1243-1248  DOI: 10.3303/CET1757208 

1243



Heat Transfer in a Wavy Ribbed having P/H = 3 and e/H = 0.3.  It is reported that wavy ribbed provided better 
TEF than the 90o ribbed, Wavy Ribbed with 30o provided highest TEF. Hoonpong et al. [2013] studied about 
friction factor and performance enhancement in a square duct heat exchanger with 60o and 90o baffles inserts 
with e/H = 0.2, 0.3 and P/H = 1.5 which TEF showed the higher value friction factor despite the high pressure. 
Sriromreun (2012) studied on experimental and numerical heat transfer enhancement of baffles with 45o Z-
shaped baffles at e/H = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and P/H = 1.5, 2, 3. It is reported that e/H = 0.1, P/H = 1.5 provided the 
highest TEF.  
According to the past literature, they have been studied on heat exchanger with different baffles arrangement; 
however, in this study will develop the baffles to increase enhancing rate.  The advantage of this pattern can 
be complement and installation all the arrangement to the heat exchanger. 
In this research brought the experimental to investigate numerically the characteristics and effect of heat 
transfer using the ANSYS FLUENT to show velocity vector and temperature contours the air. The Nusselt 
number (Nu) and the friction factor (f) were determined to find the relation of Nu with f values and develop 
arrangement of baffles to increase the thermal performance.  

2. Computational Models and Numerical Method 

Based on the above assumptions, the air flow in channel is steady state and incompressible fluid governed by 
the continuity, the Navier–Stokes equations with k-𝜀, RNG and the energy equations will be discretized by the 
Quadratic upstream interpolation for convective kinetics differencing scheme (QUICK) for convective and 
diffusion term, respectively. These equations can be written as follows: 
The channel model were analyzed by Continuity equation, Momentum equation, Energy equation in the 
Cartesian tensor these equations can be written as follows: 
Continuity equation: 

( ) 0
i

i

u
x







  (1) 

Momentum equation: 

' '
( )

i j

i i j

i
i j

j

u u P

x x x

u
u u

x


 

  
  

  

  
      

 (2) 

Energy equation: 

( ) ( )
i t

i j j

T
u T

x x x


   
  

    

 (3) 

Where  is the density of air, x is the length of test section, u is the velocity of air, P and T is the pressure and 
the temperature of air, respectively. 

Where   and t


 are molecular thermal diffusivity and turbulent thermal diffusivity, respectively and are given 
by 

Pr


   and t

t
tPr


   (4) 

Where µ and µt is the viscosity and the turbulent viscosity of air, Pr and Prt is the prandtl number and the 
turbulent prandtl number of air. 
All the governing equations (1), (2), (3) were discretized by the QUICK numerical scheme, decoupling with the 
Semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations (SIMPLE) algorithm (Suluksna, 2009) and solved using a 
finite volume approach. The solutions were converged when the normalized residual values were less than 10-
4 for all variables. 
There are three parameters of interest in the present work, 1) friction factor 2) Nusselt number and 3) Thermal 
performance enhancement factor (TEF), The friction factor, f is computed by pressure drop, p across the 
length of the periodic channel, p as 

2

2

Lv
p f

D


   (5) 

The Nusselt number which can be written as 

D

hD
Nu

k
  (6) 

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Where h and k is heat transfer coefficient and the thermal conductivity of air, respectively. 
The thermal performance enhancement factor (TEF) is defined as 

1/3

0 0

b b
Nu f

TEF
Nu f



  
   
  

 (7) 

Where Nub and fb stand for Nusselt number and friction factor for the Baffles channel, respectively. Nuo and fo 
stand for Nusselt number and friction factor for the smooth channel, respectively. 

3. Simulation of flow configuration 

The flow system is a horizontal rectangular duct with incline shaped baffles repeatedly placed on lower wall 
has width (W) 300 mm. The duct is divided into 3 sections: entry (450 mm), test section (0.38 m) with constant 
heat flux (12.5 kW/m2) on lower wall, and exit (80mm). The duct height (H) 30 mm, the detail of the full length 
baffle channel is shown in Figure 1a whereas a module of the computational domain due to periodical flow 
along the incline shaped baffles is displayed in Figure 1b. For the advantages of the computation domain, the 
number of mesh and calculating time can be reduced 10 times from the duct geometry. The baffles have angle 
of attack (α) 30o, 45o and 60o respectively at baffle-to channel-height ratios (e/H) 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3. 
 

 
Figure 1: a) Duct geometry, b) Computational domain of flow. 

 

 

 

Figure 2: a) Variation of TEF with Re at 0.2, b) Variation of TEF with Re at = 45
o
. 

4. Experimental results and discussion 

The experimental result with e/H = 0.2 for all angles of attack shown in Figure 2 reported that α = 45o provided 
the highest Nub/Nuo, this is because the angle of attack can effect on the number of baffles, then α = 45

o
 

where has the optimum number of baffles effect on increase Nub value with medium fb value then the relation 
of Nub with fb. Values are provided the highest TEF shown in Figure. 2 a). To discussion experimental effect of 

a
) 

b

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baffles at same angle of attack (45o) for all e/H is presented in Figure2 b).  It is found that higher e/H causes to 
increase, at 0.3 provided the highest TEF and e/H = 0.2 and 0.1. 
The Reynold number (Re) is defined as 

𝑅𝑒 =
𝑢𝐷

𝑣
 (8) 

Where  is the kinematic viscosity of air and D is the hydraulics diameter of test section. 

5. The results from simulation 

5.1 Verify the accuracy of the simulation 

Comparison the results from simulation with experimental [Kangvantham et al., 2014] in the same conditions 
that   and   are in range of ±10%. 

5.2 Effect of Reynold number (Re) 

The velocity vector and temperature contours of rectangular duct with α = 45o at e/H = 0.2 are presented in 
Figure 3, it is apparent that increase Re cause to tempestuous velocity vectors and gives higher heat transfer 
enhancement. At Re 34,100 temperature contours showed spread of color temperature throughout 
rectangular duct however the Thermal performance Enhancement Factor (TEF) tends to decrease with  
decreasing of  Nub/Nuo , constant fb/fo and increase of Re. 
 

Figure 3: Effect of Reynold number (Re) with velocity vectors and temperature contours in α = 45
o
 at e/H = 0.2 

5.3 Effect of baffle-to channel-height ratios (e/H) 

Figure 4 showed characteristic of flow and heat transfer in the form of velocity vectors and temperature 
contours for rectangular duct with inclined shape baffles, α = 30o, 45oand 60o at e/H = 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3. At Re 
= 12,600, x = L/H = 26.67 consider velocity vectors e/H = 0.3 is more co-rotating vortex flows than e/H = 0.1 
and 0.2, respectively cause height of baffles effect on air flow through rectangular duct will attack baffles 
easily, create tempestuous of flow that effect on the cool air on top wall can attack baffles easily, create 
tempestuous of flow that effect on the cool air on top wall can attack heat plat at the bottom wall to get higher 
heat transfer. Consider temperature contours found that the lower temperature displayed on dark blue colour 
of e/H = 0.3 is less than e/H = 0.2 and 0.1, respectively so e/H = 0.3 gives the highest heat transfer. 

x=26.6
 

x=0 
x=6.6
67 

x=13.3
33 

x=20.0
00 

Z 

Y 
X 

x=6.6
7 

x=13.3
3 

x=20.0
0 

x=26.6
7 

Re = 12,600 

Re = 16,370 

Re = 22,400 

Re =27,400 

Re = 34,100 

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5.4 Effect of angle of attack (α) 

Figure 4, the co-rotating vortex flows tends to increase with increasing of α. Although α = 60o provides the 
highest co-rotating vortex flows, air flows on top wall do not attack heat plate on bottom wall as well. Consider 
velocity vectors and temperature contours found that α  = 45o, air flows bounce around heat plate on bottom 
wall and showed temperature are range of 440 K to 500 K that displayed on yellow colour to red colour. α = 
45o provides the highest heat transfer than α  = 60o and 30o, respectively. 
 

Figure 4: velocity vectors and temperature contours in α = 30
o
, 45

o
 and 60

o
, e/H = 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3, Re= 

12,600 at x = L/H = 26.67. 

6. Conclusions 

The simulation results concluded that lowest Re will provide optimum heat transfer. Consider velocity vectors 
and temperature contours found that increasing ratio of e/H cause to thermal exchange in rectangular duct 
better, e/H = 0.3 gives higher heat transfer than, e/H = 0.2 and 0.1, respectively. Increasing α gives the 
turbulence intensity of the flow better, temperature contours found that α = 45o provide the highest 
temperature so α = 45o at e/H = 0.3, type of baffles to get optimum TEF = 1.74 at Re = 12,600. 

Acknowledgments  

The funding of this research work is supported by Strategic Wisdom and Research Institute Srinakharinwirot 
University (SWU, Grant number: 787/2558) and SWU Academic Outreach Services. 

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 = 0.1 

 = 0.2 

 = 0.3 

𝛼 = 30o 𝛼 = 45o 𝛼 = 60o 

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