Effect of Inlet Conditions on the Flow in a Narrowing Channel under Different Thermal Loads

The article presents the results of numerical modeling of the effect of the profiled inlet section of a channel on the flow in a confuser with a heated wall. The calculations were performed in the OpenFOAM package using the Navier–Stokes equations of viscous fluid motion, supplemented by the k–ω SST turbulence model. A mesh convergence test and comparison with experimental data were conducted. It was shown that, under quasi-isothermal conditions with a heat flux of 1 kW/m2, the presence of an inlet section improves the agreement between the calculated and measured flow parameters at the beginning of the confuser, and then the effect of the inlet section on the flow parameters is absent. It was revealed that, with a heat flux of 6 kW/m2, the inlet section has a significant effect on the flow along the entire confuser length, reducing the velocity shoot-through effect and the laminarization of the boundary layer.