ABSTRACT Numerical investigations were conducted on forced convective heat transfer from a smooth, dimpled plate with constant heat flux in air flows at varying Reynolds numbers. Air was used as the working fluid, and both identical and varying flow conditions were numerically analyzed using ANSYS FLUENT 2025 R2. The study primarily examined the impact of increasing flow rate on flow behavior and heat transfer enhancement in a dimpled plate. The analysis examines the Nusselt number and its behavior when increasing in Reynolds number. In addition, the study explored the physical mechanisms responsible for the enhancement, including vortex formation, boundary‐layer disruption, and improved turbulent mixing near the wall region. An increase in Reynolds number from about 35,000 to 110,000 enhanced heat transfer within the dimpled plate, reaching approximately 10,000 W/m 2 ·K. Similarly, an increase in Reynolds number led to a higher averaged Nusselt number at constant heat flux. The results observed that the heat transfer rate between the plate surfaces and the airflow within the investigation domain increased with higher flow rates or Reynolds numbers. The average Nusselt number at the dimpled plate was approximately 34% greater than that of a smooth plate, and its friction factor was approximately 32% higher. Overall, in comparison with a smooth plate, a dimpled plate exhibited superior overall thermo‐hydraulic performance, with an improvement of approximately 78.5% along the dimpled plate. The novelty of this study lies in extending the numerical analysis to high Reynolds numbers while providing a combined evaluation of thermal and turbulence characteristics to understand better the mechanisms of heat transfer enhancement in dimpled plates.
Oliwie et al. (Sun,) studied this question.