Numerical Simulations on the Heat Transfer and Flow Performance of Lubricating Oil in an Air/Lubricating Oil Heat Exchanger

The heat transfer and flow performance of lubricating oil in an air/lubricating oil heat exchanger were simulated by the realizable \(k - \varepsilon\) model with enhanced wall treatment in ANSYS FLUENT, so as to obtain the variation rule of the heat transfer factor j and the friction factor f with Re. Simlarly, several literature empirical correlations and experiments were adopted. By comparison and analysis of ANSYS FLUENT numerical simulation results, literature empirical correlations and experimental results, it was found that the heat transfer factor j of lubricating oil in channels with serrated fins could be predicted better by the realizable \(k{ - }\varepsilon\) model with enhanced wall treatment (the relative deviation of 7% ~10%) and Wieting correlations (the relative deviation of 4% ~9%). Moreover, the friction factor f of lubricating oil could be predicted better by the realizable \(k{ - }\varepsilon\) model with enhanced wall treatment (the relative deviation of −11% ~−5%), Wieting correlations (the relative deviation of −8% ~−2%) and Joshi&Webb correlations (the relative deviation of −8%  ~−1%).