Numerical study of natural convection in a rectangular cavity with variation of cavity aspect ratios and cavity inclination angles (original) (raw)

Effects of thermal boundary conditions on natural convection flows within a square cavity

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2006

A numerical study to investigate the steady laminar natural convection flow in a square cavity with uniformly and non-uniformly heated bottom wall, and adiabatic top wall maintaining constant temperature of cold vertical walls has been performed. A penalty finite element method with bi-quadratic rectangular elements has been used to solve the governing mass, momentum and energy equations. The numerical procedure adopted in the present study yields consistent performance over a wide range of parameters (Rayleigh number Ra, 10 3 6 Ra 6 10 5 and Prandtl number Pr, 0.7 6 Pr 6 10) with respect to continuous and discontinuous Dirichlet boundary conditions. Non-uniform heating of the bottom wall produces greater heat transfer rates at the center of the bottom wall than the uniform heating case for all Rayleigh numbers; however, average Nusselt numbers show overall lower heat transfer rates for the non-uniform heating case. Critical Rayleigh numbers for conduction dominant heat transfer cases have been obtained and for convection dominated regimes, power law correlations between average Nusselt number and Rayleigh numbers are presented.

Simulation of Natural Convection in a Square Cavity with Partially Heated and Cooled Vertical Walls

Proceeding of 5th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference (TFEC)

Natural convection driven by temperature differences between partially heated and cooled vertical walls in a square cavity is studied numerically. Steady or unsteady cellular flow structures and temperature patterns are illustrated along with the evolution of heat transfer rates in terms of Nusselt number. The cavity is filled with fluids of various Prandtl number, including .024 (liquid metal), .71 (air), 6 (water), and 450 (silicon oil). The effect of Prandtl and Rayleigh numbers on the flow regime and heat transfer is established along with two different thermal boundary conditions.

Natural Convection in Inclined two Dimensional Rectangular Cavities

Conference: ASME Fluids Engineering Division 2009 Summer Conference, Vail, Colorado, USA, Volume: Paper No. FEDSM2009-78566; available online: ASME digital library, 2009

ABSTRACT: Steady two-dimensional natural convection in fluid filled cavities has been investigated numerically. The conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy governing the motion of a Newtonian Boussinesq fluid have been numerically solved using the finite volume technique. The computations were performed for three cavity height based Rayleigh numbers 10 (Exponent 4), 10 (Exponent 5) and 10 (Exponent 6). In all of the numerical experiments, the channel is heated from below and cooled from the top with insulated side-walls and the inclination angle is varied. The simulations have been carried out for several aspect ratios. For the case of the square cavity the calculated values are in excellent agreement with previously published benchmark results. The effects of the inclination of the cavity to the horizontal, with the angle varying from 0 to 180 and the initial start up conditions were investigated in turn for each aspect ratio. The inclination and the “initial” assumed conditions have a significant effect on the flow patterns, temperature distributions and the heat transfer rates. In particular it is found that the average Nusselt number exhibits discontinuities for rectangular cavities and that the occurrence of the discontinuity with angle of inclination is strongly influenced by the assumed start up field in the steady calculations in much the same way as the hysteresis effect that was identified by other workers.

Numerical Study of Natural Convection Inside a Square Cavity with Non-uniform Heating from Top

Journal of The Institution of Engineers (India): Series C, 2020

The prime objective of the present numerical study is to analyse buoyancy-driven thermal flow behaviour inside an enclosure with the application of nonlinear heating from top surface which is commonly essential in glass industries. A fluid-filled square cavity with sinusoidal heating from top surface, adiabatic bottom wall and constant temperature side walls is considered here. The thermal flow behaviour has been numerically observed with the help of relevant parameters like stream functions, isotherms and Nusselt number. For the present investigation, Rayleigh number (Ra), Prandtl number (Pr) and heating frequency of the wall (x) are varied from 10 3 to 10 6 , 0.7 to 7 and 0.5 to 2, respectively. It has been noticed from the investigation that flow dynamics drastically alter with Ra, x and Pr. However, the effect of Ra on heat transfer rate has been found to be significantly higher while compared with the influences by x and Pr. Keywords Free convection Á Buoyancy Á Rayleigh number Á Pr number Á Sinusoidal heating Greek letters a Thermal diffusivity (m 2 s-1) b Volumetric expansion coefficient (K-1) q Kinetic viscosity (m 2 s-1) t Density of fluid (kg m-3) h Dimensionless temperature x Heating frequency of the top wall

Numerical investigation of natural convection in a cavity using an open geometry

This paper presents a numerical investigation of airflow in an open geometry. The case under consideration is a room with two opposite and decentred openings which create a strong potential for ventilation. The building's characteristic dimensions are the following: H=2.50 m height and W=6.50 m width. A temperature difference between the walls and the outside air is fixed, resulting in a characteristic Rayleigh number (Ra) ranging from 10 5 to 10 7 . This room model proceeds from a benchmark exercise "ADNBATI"

Natural convection in a partially open square cavity with internal heat source: An analysis of the opening mass flow

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2011

A steady buoyancy-driven flow of air in a partially open square 2D cavity with internal heat source, adiabatic bottom and top walls, and vertical walls maintained at different constant temperatures is investigated numerically in this work. A heat source with 1% of the cavity volume is present in the center of the bottom wall. The cold right wall contains a partial opening occupying 25%, 50% or 75% of the wall. The influence of the temperature gradient between the verticals walls was analyzed for Ra e = 10 3-10 5 , while the influence of the heat source was evaluated through the relation R = Ra i /Ra e , investigated at between 400 and 2000. Interesting results were obtained. For a low Rayleigh number, it is found that the isotherm plots are smooth and follow a parabolic shape indicating the dominance of the heat source. But as the Ra e increases, the flow slowly becomes dominated by the temperature difference between the walls. It is also observed that multiple strong secondary circulations are formed for fluids with a small Ra e whereas these features are absent at higher Ra e. The comprehensive analysis is concluded with horizontal air velocity and temperature plots for the opening. The numerical results show a significant influence of the opening on the heat transfer in the cavity.

Numerical Investigation of Natural Convection in a Square Cavity with Tilting Walls

Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer

Numerical simulations have been undertaken for the problem of natural convection flow in a square cavity. The finite element method is applied to governing equations of laminar flow in a series of Rayleigh numbers Ra from 10 3 up to 10 6. To increase the performance of square cavities, the hot and cold walls have been tilted from the vertical position. The solutions of the base cavity and tilting-wall cavity problem have been performed; flow and thermal field solutions have been presented for a few numbers of cases. Increasing density uniform grids with respect to Rayleigh numbers have been served in all cases, and a grid study has been performed to guarantee accurate solutions. The tilting angles have been chosen as 3 or 5 deg, and the direction of rotation was inside or outside. In some cases, the heat transfer performance of the cavity has been corrupted; however, an increase in the performance of up to 7% was acquired.

IJERT-Numerical Investigation of Natural Convection Heat Transfer in a Square Cavity

International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology (IJERT), 2015

https://www.ijert.org/numerical-investigation-of-natural-convection-heat-transfer-in-a-square-cavity https://www.ijert.org/research/numerical-investigation-of-natural-convection-heat-transfer-in-a-square-cavity-IJERTV4IS070206.pdf Natural convection heat transfer in enclosures find many applications such as heating and cooling of building spaces, solar energy utilization, thermal energy storage, cooling of electrical and electronic components etc. In the present study, Numerical Investigation is conducted in a square cavity with one vertical wall maintained at a high temperature and with the opposing vertical wall at a low temperature. The influence of Grashof numbers ranging from 20000 to 200000 for Prandtl number 0.7 (air) is studied. The governing vorticity and energy equations are solved by finite difference methods including Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) and Successive Over Relaxation (SOR) techniques with C coding. Steady state isothermal lines and streamlines are obtained for all the Grashof numbers considered. In addition, the average Nusselt number, over the hot wall for the range of Grashof numbers is calculated. The contours of streamlines and isothermal lines are presented for all the parameters investigated. Changes in the streamline and isothermal line patterns are observed with the change in Grashof numbers. The results obtained in this study are useful for the design of devices with enclosures subjected to high temperature differences.

Numerical Analysis of Laminar Natural Convection in a Quadrantal Cavity with Non-uniform heating of Bottom Wall

In this paper, we analyze the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics inside a two dimensional quadrantal cavity filled with air. The cavity is heated non-uniformly from the bottom wall and the vertical wall is cooled to a constant temperature while the curved wall is thermally insulated. Finite element method is used to solve the transport equations. The results are illustrated in the form of streamlines, isotherms, local Nusselt number and average Nusselt number. It reveals that the local Nusselt number at the bottom wall follows a sinusoidal variation and moreover at some location, the Nusselt number is negative because of the imposed temperature distribution on the wall. It further reveals that the mechanism of heat transfer is conduction at lower values of Rayleigh number, while heat transfer is due to convection at higher values of Rayleigh number.