In addition to the extensive experimental work on dimpled surfaces, many studies involving computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling and numerical simulation have also been carried out. Numerical simulation of vortex dynamics and heat transfer in cavities is characterized in a growing number of papers (Figure 1), the turbulence in which is predominantly described in terms of the Reynolds equations Isaev et al. (2007). The developing interest to resolve the thermal and fluid dynamics problems associated with VHTE was prompted by significant improvements made lately in computational tools and availability of the growing number of the commercially available software packages such as FLUENT, PHOENIX, CFX, ASPEN, etc.

Figure 1 Number of publications on numerical simulation of vortex flows Isaev et al. (2007)

Numerical studies by many authors over the past two decades have confirmed the observations made in the experiments, and in particular the existence of the three-dimensional vortex in the dimple. The most comprehensive state-of-the-art survey on the subject was published in 2004 Isaev et al. (2004).

This extensive publication includes entire history of the numerical investigation of the single dimple and dimpled arrays. The authors presented numerous illustrations of the vortex flow structures along with velocity and temperature distributions for a wide range of Reynolds numbers and dimple geometry.

Some examples from the numerical studies are given below. Figure 2 and Figure 3 illustrate the vortex structures that are formed in symmetrical and asymmetrical dimples when for laminar and turbulent flows.