Conjugate natural convection in air filled tube inserted a square cavity

Numerical analyses of fluid flow and heat transfer due to buoyancy forces in a tube inserted square cavity filled with fluid were carried out by using control volume method in this study. The cavity was heated from the left wall and cooled from the right isothermally and horizontal walls were adiabatic. A circular tube filled with air was inserted into the square cavity. The case that the inside and outside of the tube were filled with the same fluid (air) was examined. Varied solid materials were chosen as the tube wall. Results were obtained for different Rayleigh numbers (Ra = 10⁴, 10⁵ and 10⁶), thermal conductivity ratio of the fluid to the tube wall (k = 0.1, 1 and 10) and different location centers of the tube (c (0.25 ≤ x ≤ 0.75, 0.25 ≤ y ≤ 0.75)). Comparison with benchmark solutions of the natural convection in a cavity was performed and numerical results gave an acceptable agreement. It was found that varied location of the tube center can lead to different flow fields and heat transfer intensities which are also affected by the value of Rayleigh number.     

NATURAL CONVECTION IN A DIFFERENTIALLY HEATED SQUARE CAVITY WITH INTERNAL HEAT GENERATION

A high-resolution, finite-difference numerical study is reported on natural convection in a square cavity. The vertical sidewatts of the cavity are differentially heated, and a uniform internal heat generation is also present. Two principal parameters are considered, the internal Rayleigh number Ra_I, which represents the strength of the internal heat generation, and the external Rayleigh number Rag, which denotes the effect due to the differential heating of the side walls. The internal Rayleigh number varies in the range 10¹⁰ Ra_I ≤ 10⁷, while the external Rayleigh number is set at Ra_E = 5 x 10⁷ for most computations. As the relative strength of the internal heat generation increases, the flows near the tap portion of the heated sidewall are directed downward. When the effect of the internal heat generation is dominant, the thermal energy leaves the system for the surroundings over the top portion of the heated wall. Only in the bottom pari of the heated wall is heat transfer directed into the system. These numerical solutions are in qualitative agreement with the available experimental measurements.     

Influences of Physical Parameters on Mixed Convection in a Horizontal Lid-Driven Cavity with an Undulating Base Surface

The problem of steady, laminar, and incompressible mixed convection flow in a horizontal lid-driven cavity is studied. In this investigation, two vertical walls of the cavity are perfectly insulated and the wavy bottom wall is considered at an identical temperature higher than the top lid. The enclosure is assumed to be filled with a Bousinessq fluid. The study includes computations for different physical parameters, such as cavity aspect ratio (AR) from 0.5 to 2, amplitude of undulating wall (A) from 0 to 0.075, and number of undulations (λ) from 0 to 3. The pressure-velocity form of Navier-Stokes and energy equations are used to represent the mass, momentum, and energy conservations of the fluid medium in the cavity. The governing equations and boundary conditions are converted to dimensionless form and solved numerically by the penalty finite element method with discretization by triangular mesh elements. Flow and heat transfer characteristics are presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms, average Nusselt number (Nu), and maximum temperature (θ _max ) of the fluid. Results show that the wavy lid-driven cavity can be considered an effective heat transfer mechanism at larger wavy surface amplitude, as well as the number of waves and cavity aspect ratio.     

Solution of incompressible fluid flow problems with heat transfer by means of an efficient RBF-FD meshless approach

The localized radial basis function collocation meshless method (LRBFCMM), also known as radial basis function generated finite differences (RBF-FD) meshless method, is employed to solve time-dependent, two-dimensional (2D) incompressible fluid flow problems with heat transfer using multiquadric RBFs. A projection approach is employed to decouple the continuity and momentum equations for which a fully implicit scheme is adopted for the time integration. The node distributions are characterized by non-Cartesian node arrangements and large sizes, i.e., in the order of 10⁵ nodes, while nodal refinement is employed where large gradients are expected, i.e., near the walls. Particular attention is given to the accurate and efficient solution of unsteady flows at high Reynolds or Rayleigh numbers, in order to assess the capability of this specific meshless approach to deal with practical problems. Three benchmark test cases are considered: a lid-driven cavity, a differentially heated cavity and a flow past a circular cylinder between parallel walls. The obtained numerical results compare very favorably with literature references for each of the considered cases. It is concluded that the presented numerical approach can be employed for the efficient simulation of fluid-flow problems of engineering relevance over complex-shaped domains.     

Natural convection in a rectangular cavity with partially active side walls

A numerical study is performed to investigate the effect of aspect ratio on the natural convection of a fluid contained in a rectangular cavity with partially thermally active side walls. The active part of the left side wall is at a higher temperature than that of the right side wall. The top and bottom of the cavity and inactive part of the side walls are thermally insulated. Nine different relative positions of the active zones are considered. The equations are discretized by the control volume method with power law scheme and are solved numerically by iterative method together with a successive over relaxation (SOR) technique. The results are obtained for Grashof numbers between 10³ and 10⁵ and the effects of the aspect ratio on the flow and temperature fields and the rate of heat transfer from the walls of the enclosure are presented. The heat transfer rate is high for the bottom–top thermally active location while the heat transfer rate is poor in the top–bottom thermally active location. The heat transfer rate is found to increase with an increase in the aspect ratio.     

Numerical Method on Natural Convection and Radiation Heat Transfer with an Isotropic Scattering Medium

The finite-volume method (FVM) for radiation heat transfer with a nonscattering medium is extended to an isotropic scattering medium, and this method is implemented in the fluid flow solver GTEA on hybrid grids. For comparison and validation, three test cases, a semicircle enclosure with a hole, a rhombic enclosure, and a square cavity, are chosen. All the results obtained by the present FVM agree very well with the numerical solutions in the references. Furthermore, the effects of the extinction coefficient and scattering albedo on the flow and temperature distribution are studied numerically in the cavity based on present approach. As the extinction coefficient increases from 0.2 to 5, the temperature gradient adjacent to the hot and cold walls gradually decreases at Ra = 10⁵, however, the temperature profiles become similar at Ra = 10⁶. For Ra = 10⁵, 10⁶, the scattering albedo affects the structures of the isotherm and streamline to some extent. As the scattering albedo increases, the convection heat transfer in the middle region of the hot wall increases, but the radiation heat transfer and the total radiation heat transfer along the hot wall decrease.     

A high-order control volume finite element method for 3-D transient heat conduction analysis of multilayer functionally graded materials

Abstract

A new three-dimensional (3-D) control volume finite element method (CV-FEM) has been developed for transient heat conduction in multilayer functionally graded materials (FGMs). A 10-node tetrahedral grid is chosen for spatial discretization and a backward difference scheme is adapted for time discretization. By using quadratic tetrahedral grids, the present CV-FEM offers greater potential for enhanced geometric flexibility and for improved numerical accuracy over the linear CV-FEM. The temperature and material properties are defined at the node. Three different types of material variation (exponential, quadratic and trigonometric) are considered in the analysis. Several test cases are provided to verify the numerical implementation. The results of the test cases are in good agreement with analytical solutions and other numerical simulation results.     

Conjugate Wall Conduction-Fluid Natural Convection in a Three-Dimensional Inclined Enclosure

Laminar conjugate conduction-natural convection heat transfer in a 3-D inclined cubic enclosure comprised of finite thickness conductive walls and central cavity is numerically investigated. The dimensionless governing equations describing the convective flow and wall heat conduction are solved by the high accuracy multidomain pseudospectral method. Computations are performed for different Rayleigh numbers (10³ ≤ Ra* ≤ 10⁶), thermal conductivity ratios (1 ≤ k ≤ 100), dimensionless wall thickness (0 ≤ s ≤ 0.25), and enclosure inclinations (?30° ≤ α ₁ ≤ 30°, 0° ≤ α ₂ ≤ 45°). The effects of the above controlling parameters on the heat transfer performances of the enclosure system are investigated in detail, with emphases on the variations of wall conduction and fluid convection heat transfer, and the interactive heat transfer conditions between solid walls and fluid in the central cavity. Numerical results reveal that the existence of enclosure walls reduces the temperature gradient across the cavity and alters the temperature distribution within the solid walls; thus, the fluid convection is complexly determined by the combined effects of k and s, and is greatly affected by enclosure inclinations at high Rayleigh numbers. Moreover, the temperature distributions and solid-fluid interactive heat transfer conditions are provided for further interpretation and demonstration of the effects of the solid walls.     

Six Convective Difference Schemes on Different Grid Systems for Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer with SIMPLE Algorithm

INTRODUCTIONThe evaluations of the dependent variables at thecell faces are sensitive to the aChievement of accurate and economical numerical solutions of fluid flowin the finite volume method with both staggered andcollocated grids, and many difference schemes wereproposed for this purpose during the past decades.Among them there are several ones being widely used,discussed and investigated concerning their numerical performance and/or char.cteristics[1-5]. Theseschemes are central diffe…     

Numerical investigation of turbulent natural convection in an inclined square cavity with a hot wavy wall

The turbulent natural convection of air flow in a confined cavity with two differentially heated side walls is investigated numerically up to Rayleigh number of 10¹². The objective of the present work is to study the effect of the inclination angle and the amplitude of the undulation on turbulent heat transfer. The low-Reynolds-number k–ε, k–ω, k–ω–SST RANS models and a coarse DNS are used and compared to the experimental benchmark data of Ampofo and Karayiannis [F. Ampofo, T.G. Karayiannis, Experimental benchmark data for turbulent natural convection in an air filled square cavity, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 46 (2003) 3551–3572]. The k–ω–SST model is then used for the following test-cases as it gives the closest results to experimental data and coarse DNS for this case. The mean flow quantities and temperature field show good agreement with coarse DNS and measurements, but there are some slight discrepancies in the prediction of the turbulent statistics. Also, the numerical results of the heat flux at the hot wall are over predicted. The strong influence of the undulation of the cavity and its orientation is well shown. The trend of the local heat transfer is wavy with different frequencies for each undulation. The turbulence causes an increase in the convective heat transfer on the wavy wall surface compared to the square cavity for high Rayleigh numbers. A correlation of the mean Nusselt number function of the Rayleigh number is also proposed for the range of Rayleigh numbers of 10⁹–10¹².     

Simulation of unsteady natural convection flow of a Casson viscoplastic fluid in a square enclosure utilizing a MAC algorithm

Non‐Newtonian fluids are increasingly being deployed in energy systems and materials processing. Motivated by these developments, in the current study, a numerical simulation is performed on two‐dimensional, unsteady buoyancy‐driven flow in a square cavity filled with non‐Newtonian fluid (Casson liquid). The enclosure geometry features vertical isothermal walls (with one at higher temperature than the other) and thermally insulated horizontal walls. The conservation equations for mass, momentum, and energy are normalized via appropriate transformations and the resulting dimensionless partial differential boundary value problem is solved computationally with a marker and cell algorithm, which features a finite difference scheme along with a staggered grid system. The projection method is employed to evaluate the pressure term. Extensive visualizations of the impact of emerging physical parameters (Rayleigh number and Casson viscoplastic parameter) on streamline and isotherm distributions in the cavity are presented for fixed Prandtl number. Nusselt number, that is, heat transfer rate, is increased with rising values of the Casson viscoplastic fluid parameter for any value of Rayleigh number. The density of streamlines increases with increasing values of Casson viscoplastic fluid parameter upto 1. Overall, the Casson fluid parameter plays a vital role in controlling the convective heat transfer within the enclosure. The computations are relevant to hybrid solar collectors, materials fabrication (polymer melts), etc.     

Natural convection heat transfer by heated partitions within enclosure

In this study, natural convection heat transfer and fluid flow of two heated partitions. within an enclosure have been analysed numerically. The right side wall and the bottom wall of the enclosure were insulated perfectly while the left side wall and top wall were maintained at the same uniform temperature. The partitions were placed on the bottom of the enclosure and their temperatures were kept higher than the non-isolated walls. The effects of position and heights of the partitions on heat transfer and flow field have been investigated. Computations for Rayleigh number in the range of 10⁴ and 10⁶ have been conducted. Using the control volume approach, finite difference equations are obtained with non-staggered grid arrangement, a computer program based on the SIMPLEM algorithm was developed. The finite difference equations were solved iteratively with a line-by-line Thomas algorithm.     

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.     

Numerical analysis of conjugate heat transfer in a partially open square cavity with a vertical heat source

Conjugate heat transfer in partially open square cavity with a vertical heat source has been numerically studied. The cavity has an opening on the top with several lengths and three different positions. The other walls of cavity were assumed adiabatic. The heat source was located on the bottom wall of cavity and it has got a width such as Printed Circuit Boards (PCB). Steady state heat transfer by laminar natural convection and conduction is studied numerically by solving two dimensional forms of governing equations with finite difference method. The results were reported for various governing parameters such as Rayleigh number (10³ ≤ Ra ≤ 10⁶), conductivity ratio, opening position, opening length, PCB distance and PCB height. The numerical results were discussed with streamlines, isotherms, Nusselt number and velocity profiles on x- and y-directions. It is found that ventilation position has a significant effect on heat transfer.     

Explicit analytical solutions of 2-D laminar natural convection

There are many natural convection processes in various fields, and it is still a hot topic to investigate the fluid dynamics and heat transfer of natural convection. The analytical solutions are meaningful in both theoretical investigation and practical applications. Specially, they are very useful to computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer as the benchmark solutions to check the numerical solutions and to develop numerical differencing schemes, grid generation methods and so forth. Two explicit analytical solutions of 2-D steady laminar natural convection along a vertical porous plate and between two vertical plates were derived for better understanding the flow and heat transfer as well as promoting the computational fluid dynamics and computational heat transfer.     

Computation of turbulent free convection in left and right tilted porous enclosures using a macroscopic k–ε model

Comparisons of computations for turbulent natural convection within clockwise and counter-clockwise inclined cavities, filled with a fluid saturated porous medium, are presented. The finite volume method in a generalized coordinate system is applied. Oblique walls are maintained at constant but different temperatures, whereas horizontal surfaces are kept insulated. Flow and heat transfer characteristics are investigated for Rayleigh number up to 10⁴ and inclination angles up to 45°, in both directions of rotation. Turbulent is handled using a macroscopic two-equation model with a wall function. In this work, the turbulence model is first switched off and the laminar branch of the solution is obtained. Subsequently, the turbulence model is included and the solution merges to the laminar branch for a reducing value of Ra_m. Present computations are compared with published results and the influence of the inclination angle on Ra_cr is analyzed, for both the left and right rotating directions. For Ra_m greater than around 10⁴, both laminar and turbulent flow solutions deviate, possibly indicating that a critical value for Ra_m was reached. Both left and right rotation of the hot wall reduce Nu, but rotating the hot wall on the counter-clockwise direction decreases Nu at a faster rate than when bending the cavity to the right.     

Parallel Finite Volume Method Simulation of Three-Dimensional Fluid Flow and Convective Heat Transfer for Viscoplastic Non-Newtonian Fluids

Three-dimensional fluid mechanics and heat transfer for viscoplastic flows are described by finite volume method, FVM. The open multi-processing approach has been implemented to parallelize the numerical code. Results for the elapsed times, speed-ups and efficiencies are presented. The code was used to describe the natural convection (Ra = 10⁴; 10⁶) and the lid-driven cavity (Re = 100; 1000) processes with Bingham, Casson and Herschel–Bulkley fluids (Bn = 0.01; 1.0). Results describing isotherms, velocity distributions and streamtraces, as a function of Ra, Re, Pr and Bn numbers are shown. The grid size analysis shows that different sizes are required to obtain precise results for Nusselt number and friction factor.     

Magnetohydrodynamic natural convection in trapezoidal cavities

A computational numerical work has been done to see the effects of magnetic field on natural convection for a trapezoidal enclosure. Both inclined walls and bottom wall have constant temperature where the bottom wall temperature is higher than the inclined walls. Top wall of the cavity is adiabatic. To investigate the effects, finite element method is used to solve the governing equations for different parameters such as Rayleigh number, Hartmann number and inclination angle of inclined wall of the enclosure. It is found that heat transfer decreased by 20.70% and 16.15% as φ increases from 0 to 60 at Ra = 10⁵ and 10⁶ respectively. On the other hand, heat transfer decreased by 20.28% and 13.42% as Ha increases from 0 to 50 for Ra = 10⁵ and 10⁶ respectively.     

Numerical simulation of free convection heat transfer in a vertical annular cavity with discrete heating

The main objective of this article is to investigate the effect of discrete heating on convection heat transfer in a vertical cylindrical annulus. In this analysis, the inner wall of the cavity has two discrete flush-mounted heat sources and the outer wall is isothermally cooled at a lower temperature and top and bottom walls are thermally insulated. The governing equations are solved using an implicit finite difference technique to investigate the influence of each parameter and in particular the radii ratio. The numerical results reveal that the heat transfer rate is always higher at the bottom heater. Also, the rate of heat transfer increases with radii ratio but decreases with aspect ratio. Further, the present results are in excellent agreement with the existing benchmark solutions.     

Role of finite element based grids and simulations on evaluation of Nusselt numbers for heatfunctions within square and triangular cavities involving multiple discrete heaters

Nusselt number is an important non-dimensional parameter which quantifies the heat transfer rate. Local Nusselt number is useful in predicting the heat transfer rate along the various hot and cold sections of the side walls in a discretely heated enclosed cavity. In addition, the overall heat balance in an enclosed cavity (total heat delivered by the hot isothermal walls should be equal to the total heat gained by the cold isothermal walls) can be validated via the average Nusselt numbers. Current finite element based simulations and post-processing have been carried out in order to analyze the influence of the multiple heaters on the Nusselt number along various sections (hot and cold) of the side walls in discretely heated square and triangular (design 1 and design 2) cavities. The working fluid is considered to be air (Pr = 0.7) and the numerical studies have been carried out for a large range of Rayleigh number (Ra = 10³–10⁵) for four different biquadratic elements (24 × 24, 28 × 28, 32 × 32 and 34 × 34). The current work also estimates the fractional error in the heat balance (ϵ) and it is clearly inferred that ϵ is comparatively lower for 34 × 34 biquadratic elements. Current work also reveals that the fractional error (ϵ) is mainly induced due to the sharp variations in the Nusselt number at the cold-hot junctions along the side walls. The present study also involves the detailed evaluation of the heatfunction (Π) expressions along the cold-hot junctions of the side walls. The computations of the heatfunctions are intrinsically related to the Nusselt numbers of the hot-cold junctions.