Heat transfer analysis of air flow through irregular geometric ducts

In the present work, experimental investigations have been carried out to study the effect of an irregular shape geometry duct on the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics. During the study, it was measured the temperature distribution, and air velocity through a duct with the different cases study of boundary conditions. The main part of the duct is designed with dimensions 3.65 m length,0.4 m width, 0.5 m height, and 1mm-thickness. Three duct components: length 1.25 m, width 0.4 m and height 0.25 m for the entrance section, length 1.2 m for the test section and length 1.25 m, width 0.4 m and height 0.5 m for the exit section. Ductwork is made of galvanized steel. Galvanized was a standard, most common material used in fabricating ductwork for most comfort air conditioning systems. The specifications for the galvanized steel sheet are ASTM A653, coating G90. The inlet duct section consists of the rectangular duct manufacturing and designed at this length to achieve a zone fully developed, the test duct section consists of an irregular duct, and the exit duct section consists of a square duct used to minimize the exit effects of the test section. Insulation is applied to ductwork to minimize the rate of thermal loss through the metal of the duct. In a two-dimensional laminar flow, numerical simulation is carried out and the projected model deals with the distribution of temperature along the irregular duct test by numerically solving the finite difference method describing the energy equation. ANSYS – 19.2 Fluent. The flow characteristics of airflow through the irregular duct was analyzed.