Free convection heat transfer in complex-wavy-wall enclosed cavity filled with nanofluid

A numerical investigation is performed into the natural convection heat transfer characteristics within an enclosed cavity filled with nanofluid. The left and right walls of the cavity have a complex-wavy geometry and are maintained at a low and high temperature, respectively. Meanwhile, the upper and lower walls of the cavity are both flat and insulated. The nanofluid is composed of Al₂O₃ nanoparticles suspended in pure water. In performing the analysis, the governing equations are formulated using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and the complex-wavy-surface is modeled as the superimposition of two sinusoidal functions. The simulations examine the effects of the volume fraction of nanoparticles, the Rayleigh number and the complex-wavy-surface geometry parameters on the flow streamlines, isotherm distribution and Nusselt number within the cavity. The results show that for all values of the Rayleigh number, the Nusselt number, increases as the volume fraction of nanoparticles increases. In addition, it is shown that the heat transfer performance can be optimized by tuning the wavy-surface geometry parameters in accordance with the Rayleigh number. Overall, the results presented in this study provide a useful insight into potential strategies for enhancing the convection heat transfer performance within enclosed cavities with complex-wavy-wall surfaces.     

Combined heat transfer of radiation and natural convection in a square cavity containing participating gases

This article deals with analyzing the effect of radiative heat transfer on natural convection heat transfer in a square cavity under normal room conditions. The governing equations of natural convection and radiative transfer are solved simultaneously to obtain the temperature, velocity and heat flux distributions inside the participating medium. The finite volume method has been adopted to solve the governing equations and the discrete ordinates method (DOM) is used to model the radiative transfer in absorbing-emitting media. The radiative–convective model is validated by comparison with test cases solutions from the literature. Then, the effects of Rayleigh number from 10² to 10⁶ and optical thickness in a broad range from 0 to 100 on temperature and velocity distributions and Nusselt numbers are investigated. The results show that even under normal room conditions with a low temperature difference, the radiation plays a significant role on temperature distribution and flow pattern in the cavity. Also, several interesting effects of radiation are observed such as a sweep behavior on the isotherms, streamlines and velocity distributions of the cavity along the optical thickness and a reverse behavior on maximum stream function and convective Nusselt number at different Rayleigh numbers.     

Visualization of Heat Transport during Natural Convection Within Porous Triangular Cavities via Heatline Approach

In this article, natural convection in a porous triangular cavity has been analyzed. Bejan's heatlines concept has been used for visualization of heat transfer. Penalty finite-element method with biquadratic elements is used to solve the nondimensional governing equations for the triangular cavity involving hot inclined walls and cold top wall. The numerical solutions are studied in terms of isotherms, streamlines, heatlines, and local and average Nusselt numbers for a wide range of parameters Da (10^?5–10^?3), Pr (0.015–1000), and Ra (Ra = 10³–5 × 10⁵). For low Darcy number (Da = 10^?5), the heat transfer occurs due to conduction as the heatlines are smooth and orthogonal to the isotherms. As the Rayleigh number increases, conduction dominant mode changes into convection dominant mode for Da = 10^?3, and the critical Rayleigh number corresponding to the on-set of convection is obtained. Distribution of heatlines illustrate that most of the heat transport for a low Darcy number (Da = 10^?5) occurs from the top region of hot inclined walls to the cold top wall, whereas heat transfer is more from the bottom region of hot inclined walls to the cold top wall for a high Darcy number (Da = 10^?3). Interesting features of streamlines and heatlines are discussed for lower and higher Prandtl numbers. Heat transfer analysis is obtained in terms of local and average Nusselt numbers (Nu _l , Nu _t ) and the local and average Nusselt numbers are found to be correlated with heatline patterns within the cavity.     

Mixed convection heat transfer in a lid-driven cavity with a rotating circular cylinder

Mixed convection heat transfer in a lid-driven cavity with a rotating cylinder was analyzed numerically for two important parameters - Richardson number, the non-dimensional angular velocity of the cylinder, and the direction of rotation using the commercial software, ADINA. The results from these simulations were validated using an open-source spectral element code, Nek5000. The results of this investigation were presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms, and average and local Nusselt numbers. The present results illustrated that the average Nusselt number was found to depend on the direction of the angular velocity. The average Nusselt number increased with an increase in the clockwise angular velocity of the cylinder for various Richardson numbers. However, it decreased with an increase in the counterclockwise until reached a critical velocity where average Nusselt number increased with an increase in the angular velocity. This study illustrated that the maximum heat transfer can be achieved when placing a rotating cylinder inside a cavity compared with non-rotating cylinder.     

Numerical study of natural convection cooling of horizontal heat source mounted in a square cavity filled with nanofluid

This paper presents a numerical study of natural convection cooling of a heat source horizontally attached to the left vertical wall of a cavity filled with copper-water nanofluid. The left vertical wall is kept at the constant temperature, while the other ones are kept adiabatic. The numerical approach is based on the finite volume method with a collocated grid arrangement. The SIMPLE algorithm is used for handling the pressure velocity coupling. In this study, the influence of some effective parameters such as: Rayleigh number, location and geometry of heat source and solid concentration are studied and discussed. Results are presented in the form of streamlines, isotherms, and average Nusselt number. The results show that dimension of the heat source is an important parameter affecting the flow pattern and temperature field, so that the average Nusselt number decreases with an increase in the length of the heater. It is also observed that at a given Rayleigh number and definite heat source geometry, the average Nusselt number increases linearly with the increase in the solid volume fraction of nanofluid. The increase of Rayleigh numbers strengthens the natural convection flows which leads to the decrease in heat source temperature. The algorithm and the computer code have been also compared with numerical results in order to verify and validate the model.     

Effect of aspect ratio on natural convection in an inclined rectangular enclosure with sinusoidal boundary condition

The aim of the present numerical study is to understand the natural convection flow and heat transfer in an inclined rectangular enclosure with sinusoidal temperature profile on the left wall. The top and bottom walls of the enclosure are kept to be adiabatic. The finite difference method is used to solve the governing equations with a range of inclination angles, aspect ratios and Rayleigh numbers. The results are presented in the form of streamlines, isotherms and Nusselt numbers. The heat transfer increases first then decreases with increasing the inclination of the enclosure for all aspect ratio and Rayleigh number. Increasing the aspect ratio shows a decreasing trend of the heat transfer for all Rayleigh numbers considered. A correlation equation is also introduced for the heat transfer analysis in this study.     

Unsteady conjugate natural convection in a porous cavity boarded by two vertical finite thickness walls

The objective of this study is to investigate unsteady conjugate natural convection in a porous cavity sandwiched by finite conductive walls considering time-periodic boundary conditions and local thermal non-equilibrium. The top and bottom boundaries are assumed to be isolated and the continuity of temperature and heat transfer are considered in interface boundaries. The effect of varying a plethora of parameters such as Rayleigh number, Thermal conductivity ratio, wall thickness, and non-dimensional frequency on the streamlines, isotherms, and Nusselt number has been studied. It is shown that, apart from non-dimensional frequency and wall thickness, the amplitude of periodic fluid Nusselt number is an increasing function of all aforementioned parameters. Furthermore, aside from Rayleigh number and heat transfer coefficient, the behavior of the solid Nusselt number is the same as fluid Nusselt number. Eventually, the time-averaged Nusselt number and heat transfer through the vertical walls for different values of non-dimensional frequencies are calculated.     

Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of Natural Convection in a Square Cavity with Linearly Heated Wall(s)

In this study, the lattice Boltzmann method is used in order to investigate the natural convection in a cavity with linearly heated wall(s). The bottom wall is heated uniformly and the vertical wall(s) are heated linearly, whereas the top wall is insulated. Investigation has been conducted for Rayleigh numbers of 10³ to 10⁵, while Prandtl number is varied from 0.7 to 10. The effects of an increase in Rayleigh number and Prandtl number on streamlines, isotherm counters, local Nusselt number and average Nusselt number are depicted. It has been observed that the average Nusselt number at the bottom wall augments with an increase in Prandtl number.     

A numerical investigation of transient natural convection heat transfer of aqueous nanofluids in a differentially heated square cavity

Transient natural convection heat transfer of aqueous nanofluids in a differentially heated square cavity is investigated numerically. The effective thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of nanofluids are predicted by using the proposed models that take the contribution of Brownian motion of nanoparticles into account. Three different Rayleigh numbers and five different volume fractions of nanoparticles are considered. The development of natural convection is presented through the evolutions of the average Nusselt number along the cold side wall. The predicted flow development times and time-averaged Nusselt numbers are scaled with Rayleigh number. In addition, the time-averaged Nusselt numbers are presented in terms of volume fraction of nanoparticles. It is shown that at constant Rayleigh numbers, the time-averaged Nusselt number is lowered with increasing volume fraction of nanoparticles.     

Study of three‐dimensional natural convection and entropy generation in an inclined solar collector equipped with partitions

Three‐dimensional natural convection in an inclined solar collector equipped with partitions has been investigated numerically. The presence of partitions improves the performances of the collector by increasing the heat transfer near the absorber. A parametric study was done for various partitions length and Rayleigh numbers, while Prandtl number and inclination angle were fixed at 0.71 and 45°, respectively. Results are reported in terms of isosurfaces of temperature, isotherms, particles trajectories, velocity vector projection, average Nusselt number along the absorber plate and entropies generation contours.     

Analysis of temperature-sensitive magnetic fluids in a porous square cavity depending on different porosity and Darcy number

Magnetic fluids are thermo-sensitive and whose flow and energy transport processes can be controlled by temperature and external magnetic field. In the natural convection of porous cavity, magnetic force is not only the driving force, the effective gravity is also a force related to the natural convection, and the effective gravity is closely depending on the porosity and permeability of porous medium. As is known, the porous medium is in solid state with high heat capacity but low heat transfer coefficient, while the magnetic fluid is a kind of fluid with high heat transfer coefficient and easy to be controlled. Combining the complementary characteristic of magnetic fluids and porous medium, we present a study for temperature-sensitive magnetic fluids in a porous square cavity. In the study, a Lattice Boltzmann method is developed to simulate the laminar convection of temperature-sensitive magnetic fluids in a porous square cavity. We present numerical results for the streamlines, isotherms, magnetization for different values of porosity and Darcy number. In addition, Nusselt numbers on heated and cooled wall and the average Nusselt numbers are also investigated.     

Laminar mixed convection in shallow inclined driven cavities with hot moving lid on top and cooled from bottom

Laminar mixed convective heat transfer in two-dimensional shallow rectangular driven cavities of aspect ratio 10 is studied numerically. The top moving lid of the cavity is at a higher temperature than the bottom wall. Computations are performed for Rayleigh numbers ranging from 10⁵ to 10⁷ keeping the Reynolds number fixed at 408.21, thus encompassing the dominating forced convection, mixed convection, and dominating natural convection flow regimes. The fluid Prandtl number is taken as 6 representing water. The effects of inclination of the cavity on the flow and thermal fields are investigated for inclination angles ranging from 0° to 30°. Interesting behaviours of the flow and thermal fields with increasing inclination are observed. The streamline and isotherm plots and the variation of the local and average Nusselt numbers at the hot and cold walls are presented. The average Nusselt number is found to increase with cavity inclination. The rate of increase of the average Nusselt number with cavity inclination is mild for dominating forced convection case while it is much steeper in dominating natural convection case.     

Natural convection in porous cavity with sinusoidal bottom wall temperature variation

Numerical study of natural convection in a porous cavity is carried out in the present paper. Natural convection is induced when the bottom wall is heated and the top wall is cooled while the vertical walls are adiabatic. The heated wall is assumed to have spatial sinusoidal temperature variation about a constant mean value which is higher than the cold top wall temperature. The non-dimensional governing equations are derived based on the Darcy model. The effects of the amplitude of the bottom wall temperature variation and the heat source length on the natural convection in the cavity are investigated for Rayleigh number range 20–500. It is found that the average Nusselt number increases when the length of the heat source or the amplitude of the temperature variation increases. It is observed that the heat transfer per unit area of the heat source decreases by increasing the length of the heated segment.     

Natural convection in porous triangular enclosure with a centered conducting body

A numerical work was performed to examine the heat transfer and fluid flow due to natural convection in a porous triangular enclosure with a centered conducting body. The center of the body was located onto the gravity center of the right-angle triangular cavity. The Darcy law model was used to write the governing equations and they were solved using a finite difference method. Results are presented by streamlines, isotherms, mean and local Nusselt numbers for the different parameters such as the Rayleigh number, thermal conductivity ratio, and height and width of the body. It was observed that both height and width of the body and thermal conductivity ratio play an important role on heat and fluid flow inside the cavity.     

Study of buoyancy-induced flows subjected to partially heated sources on the left and bottom walls in a square enclosure

In this paper, numerical simulations of laminar, steady, two-dimensional natural convection flows in a square enclosure with discrete heat sources on the left and bottom walls are presented using a finite-volume method. Two different orientated wall boundary conditions are designed to investigate the natural convection features. The computational results are expressed in the form of streamlines and isothermal lines for Rayleigh numbers ranging from 10² to 10⁷ in the cavity. In the course of study, a combination of third-order and exponential interpolating profile based on the convective boundedness criterion is proposed and tested against the partially heated cavity flow up to the highest Rayleigh number 10⁷. The effects of thermal strength and heating length on the hydrodynamic and thermal fields inside the enclosure are also presented. Numerical results indicate that the average Nusselt number increases as Rayleigh number increases for both cases. Moreover, it is seen that the effect of the heat transfer rate due to the heating strength on the left wall is different from the one on the bottom. For the heater size effect, it is observed that by increasing the length of heat source segment, the heat transfer rate is gradually increased for both cases.     

Laminar natural convection in an inclined complicated cavity with spatially variable wall temperature

Natural convection in two-dimensional enclosure with three flat and one wavy walls is numerically investigated. One wall is having a sinusoidal temperature profile. Other three walls including the wavy wall are maintained at constant cold temperature. This problem is solved by SIMPLE algorithm with deferred QUICK scheme in curvilinear co-ordinates. The tests were carried out for different inclination angles, amplitudes and Rayleigh numbers while the Prandtl number was kept constant. The geometrical configurations considered were namely one-, two- and three-undulations.The results obtained show that the angle of inclination affects the flow and heat transfer rate in the cavity. With increase in amplitude, the average Nusselt number on the wavy wall is appreciably high at low Rayleigh number. Increasing the number of undulations beyond two is not beneficial. The trend of local Nusselt number is wavy.     

Laminar natural convection in an inclined complicated cavity with spatially variable wall temperature

Natural convection in two-dimensional enclosure with three flat and one wavy walls is numerically investigated. One wall is having a sinusoidal temperature profile. Other three walls including the wavy wall are maintained at constant cold temperature. This problem is solved by SIMPLE algorithm with deferred QUICK scheme in curvilinear co-ordinates. The tests were carried out for different inclination angles, amplitudes and Rayleigh numbers while the Prandtl number was kept constant. The geometrical configurations considered were namely one, two and three undulations.The results obtained show that the angle of inclination affects the flow and heat transfer rate in the cavity. With increase in amplitude, the average Nusselt number on the wavy wall is appreciably high at low Rayleigh number. Increasing the number of undulations beyond two is not beneficial. The trend of local Nusselt number is wavy.     

Rayleigh–Benard convection in water-based alumina nanofluid: A numerical study

Rayleigh–Benard (R-B) convection in water-based alumina (Al₂O₃) nanofluid is analyzed based on a single-component non-homogeneous volume fraction model (SCNHM) using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The present model accounts for the slip mechanisms such as Brownian and thermophoresis between the nanoparticle and the base fluid. The average Nusselt number at the bottom wall for pure water is compared to the previous numerical data for natural convection in a cavity and a good agreement is obtained. The parameters considered in this study include the Rayleigh number of the nanofluid, the volume fraction of alumina nanoparticle and the aspect ratio of the cavity. For the Al₂O₃/water nanofluid, it is found that heat transfer rate decreases with an increase of the volume fraction of the nanoparticle. The results are demonstrated and explained with average Nusselt number, isotherms, streamlines, heat lines, and nanoparticle distribution. The effect of nanoparticles on the onset of instability in R-B convection is also analyzed.     

Comparison of Mixed Convection in a Square Cavity with an Oscillating versus a Constant Velocity Wall

This article presents a numerical investigation of unsteady laminar mixed convection heat transfer in a two-dimensional square cavity. The cavity is configured such that one of the vertical walls is cooled and slides either with a constant speed or with a sinusoidal oscillation. A portion of the opposite stationery wall is heated by a constant temperature heat source while, the remaining walls of the cavity are thermally insulated. Different configurations of sliding wall movement and a series of Richardson numbers and Strouhal numbers are tested. The results indicate that the direction and magnitude of the sliding wall velocity affect the heat transfer rate. At low Richardson numbers, the average heat transfer rate for the cavity with an oscillating wall is found to be lower compared to that for the cavity with a constant velocity wall. In addition, at a fixed Richardson number, as the Strouhal number decreases the oscillation frequency of average Nusselt number on the vertical walls decreases; however, the oscillation amplitude of average Nusselt number increases.     

Numerical Studies on Natural Convection in a Trapezoidal Enclosure With Discrete Heating

Abstract

A steady state laminar natural convection flow in a trapezoidal enclosure with discretely heated bottom wall, adiabatic top wall, and constant temperature cold inclined walls is performed. The finite volume based commercial code “ANSYS-FLUENT” is used to investigate the influence of discrete heating on natural convection flows in a trapezoidal cavity. The numerical solution of the problem covers various Rayleigh numbers ranging from 10³ to 10⁶, non-dimensional heating length ranging from 0.2 to 0.8 and Prandtl number is 0.7. The performance of the present numerical approach is represented in the form of streamfunction, temperature profile and Nusselt number. Heat transfer increases with increase of Rayleigh numbers at the corners of the cavity for same heating length from center of the bottom wall. However, the heat transfer rate is less and almost constant for the Rayleigh numbers considered. It is found that the average Nusselt number monotonically increases with increase of Rayleigh number and length of heat source. The variation of local and average Nusselt numbers is more significant for larger length of heating than smaller one. The heat transfer correlations useful for practical design problems have been predicted.