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 Investigation of Double Diffusive Mixed Convection Laminar Flow in Two Sided Lid Driven Porous Cavity

This paper presents the numerical study of mixed convection in a two‐sided lid driven porous cavity due to temperature and concentration gradients. The top and bottom walls are stationary and insulated. The left and right walls are moving at an equal velocity (V_o) in the same direction. The temperature and concentration are kept high at the right wall and low at the left wall. The governing equations are discretized using finite volume method. The pressure–velocity coupling is performed by the SIMPLE algorithm. A third order differed QUICK scheme is applied at the inner nodes and a second order central difference scheme is used at the boundary nodes. The flow behavior and heat transfer are analyzed for different nondimensional numbers, such as, 1 × 10^?4 ≤ Ri ≤ 10, 1 × 10^?4 ≤ Da ≤ 0.1 and 0.7 < Pr < 10. The present numerical results are compared with the literature and are in good agreement. For the above selected nondimensional numbers, the heat and fluid flow behavior is investigated using local and average Nusselt (Nu) and Sherwood (Sh) numbers. Results show that the convection flow is significant up to Da = 0.1, beyond that the effect of porosity is negligible. The effect of Prandtl number (Pr) on average Nu is found to increase significantly.     

Heatlines for Visualization of Heat Transport for Natural Convection within Porous Trapezoidal Enclosures with Various Wall Heating

A detailed study on natural convection heat transfer within porous trapezoidal enclosures has been carried out for two different cases. The effect of linearly heated side walls on flow pattern is investigated in case 1; whereas, the effect of linearly heated left wall and cold right wall is studied in case 2. In both cases, the bottom wall of the cavity is uniformly heated and the upper wall is adiabatic. The results are analyzed for a wide range of parameters such as Rayleigh number, Ra(10³ ≤ Ra ≤ 10⁶), Prandtl number, Pr(0.015 ≤Pr ≤ 988.24), and Darcy number, Da(10^?5 ≤ Da ≤ 10^?3).     

Numerical Simulation of Natural Convection in a Triangle Cavity Filled with Nanofluids Using Tiwari and Das' Model: Effects of Heat Flux

In this article, we present a fully higher‐order compact (FHOC) finite difference method to investigate the effects of heat flux on natural convection of nanofluids in a right‐angle triangle cavity, where the left vertical side is heated with constant heat flux both partially and throughout the entire wall, the inclined wall is cooled, and the rest of walls are kept adiabatic. The Darcy flow and the Tiwari and Das’ nanofluid models are considered. Investigations with four types of nanofluids were made for different values of Rayleigh numbers with the range of 100 ≤ Ra ≤ 50,000, size of heat flux as 0.1 ≤ ε ≤ 1.0, enclosure aspect ratio as 0.5 ≤ AR ≤ 2.0, and solid volume fraction parameter of nanofluids with the range of 0% ≤ ? ≤ 20%. Results show that the average heat transfer rate increases significantly as particle volume fraction and Rayleigh numbers increase, and the maximum value of average Nusselt number is obtained by decreasing the enclosure aspect ratio. The results also show that the average heat transfer decreases with an increase in the length of the heater. Furthermore, multiple correlations in terms of the Rayleigh numbers and the solid volume fraction of four types of nanoparticles have been established in a general form.     

The role of a partition on free convection in a trapezoidal shaped building

Heat transfer and fluid flow in a partitioned trapezoidal-shaped building are carried out. The finite-volume computational procedure is adopted for numerical simulations. The inclined wall of the building is uniformly heated; the vertical wall is the cold wall, whereas the top and bottom walls are adiabatic. The ranges of parameters studied are the Rayleigh number, Ra (10³ ≤ Ra ≤ 10⁶), the location of the partition, d (0.3L ≤ d ≤ 0.9L), and the partition height, h (0.3H ≤ h ≤ 0.9H). The results are presented for different locations and height of the partition in an enclosure in terms of temperature patterns, streamline curves, and the local and overall Nusselt numbers. It is noticed that when the height of the partition increases beyond 0.3H irrespective of the position of the partition, the heat transfer decreases drastically for all Rayleigh numbers. The comfort zones are located in the cavity for different partition heights. Correlations are developed for Nusselt numbers in terms of the Rayleigh number and height of the partition.     

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.     

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.     

Magnetohydrodynamic Natural Convection Flow in an Enclosure with a Finite Length Heater Using the Differential Quadrature (DQ) Method

Analysis of heat and fluid flow transport due to natural convection and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows in a square enclosure with a finite length heater has been performed using the differential quadrature (DQ) technique. The heater with constant heat flux is located on the bottom wall of the enclosure and isothermal boundary conditions are applied to the right vertical wall while the remaining walls are adiabatic. The effects of heater length (0.2 ≤ ? ≤ 0.8), heater location (0.1 ≤ c/L ≤ 0.9), and direction of magnetic force (0° ≤ φ ≤ 90°) for different values of Grashof (10³ ≤ Gr ≤ 10⁶) and Hartmann numbers (0 ≤ Ha ≤ 100) on the heat and fluid flow in the enclosure are studied. According to the results obtained, heat transfer reduces when increasing the Hartmann number. The rate of reduction is higher for high values of Grashof number. The heat transfer rate for the heater closer to the cold wall is considerably higher than the heaters far from the right wall.     

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.     

Numerical Analysis of the Effects of Selected Geometrical Parameters and Fluid Properties on MHD Natural Convection Flow in an Inclined Elliptic Porous Enclosure with Localized Heating

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection flow and associated heat convection in an oriented elliptic enclosure has been investigated with numerical simulations. A magnetic field was applied to the cylindrical wall of the configuration, the top and bottom walls of the enclosure were circumferentially cooled and heated, respectively, while the extreme ends along the cross‐section of the elliptic duct were considered adiabatic. The full governing equations in terms of continuity, momentum, and energy transport were transformed into nondimensional form and solved numerically using finite difference method adopting Gauss–Seidel iteration technique. The selected geometrical parameters and flow properties considered for the study were eccentricity (0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8), angle of inclination (0°, 30°, 60°, and 90°), Hartmann number (0, 25, and 50), Grashof number (10⁴, 10⁵, and 10⁶), and Darcy number (10^?3, 10^?4, and 10^?5). The Prandtl number was held constant at 0.7. Numerical results were presented by velocity distributions as well as heat transfer characteristics in terms of local and average Nusselt numbers (i.e., rate of heat transfer). The optimum heat transfer rate was attained at e value of 0.8. Also, the heat transfer rate increased significantly between the angles of inclination 58° and 90°. In addition, Hartmann number increased with decreased heat transfer rate and flow circulation. A strong flow circulation (in terms of velocity distribution) was observed with increased Grashof and Darcy numbers. The combination of the geometric and fluid properties therefore can be used to regulate the circulation and heat transfer characteristics of the flow in the enclosure.     

Acknowledgment

An experimental and numerical study has been carried out in order to investigate mixed and natural convection heat transfer in a two-dimensional enclosure. A discrete isothermal heat source is located at one of the vertical walls. Also, two ventilation ports are at the bottom and on top of the opposite wall. A forced flow condition was imposed by providing an inlet of air at the bottom port. A Mach–Zehnder interferometer was used to visualize the temperature field within the enclosure and to determine the local and average heat transfer characteristics of the heat source. Five heater positions on the vertical wall and different Rayleigh numbers (4.5 × 10⁵ to 1.15 × 10⁶) and Reynolds numbers (120 to 1600) were considered in the experiments. A finite volume code has been developed based on the SIMPLE algorithm and hybrid discretization scheme for the numerical study. It is observed that the interaction of natural convection with the forced flow leads to various flow fields depending on the Richardson number, Reynolds number and the heater position. Also, results show different trends for variation of the average Nusselt number with the heater position at low and high Reynolds numbers. An optimum position for the heat source, at which the maximum heat transfer is achieved, exists for high Reynolds numbers and has been found to be at the middle of the vertical wall.     

Natural convection on an open square cavity containing diagonally placed heaters and adiabatic square block and filled with hybrid nanofluid of nanodiamond - cobalt oxide/water

A finite difference based two dimensional simulations on laminar natural convection inside the open square cavity containing diagonal heaters and a central adiabatic square block is presented by vorticity – stream function approach. The enclosure is filled with hybrid nanofluid of Nanodiamond - Cobalt Oxide/Water. The top and bottom walls are considered as adiabatic and the vertical walls have diagonal heaters. The inlet port is placed on the left end of the top wall and the outlet is placed at the bottom of the right wall. The variables considered are Rayleigh number (10⁴ to 10⁶) and volumetric fraction of Nanodiamond - Cobalt Oxide (0 to 6%) particles. The results of fluid flow with single phase model are elucidated with streamlines, Isotherms and Average Nusselt number. The strength of the primary vortex depreciated with the increasing percentage of nano composites for all the Rayleigh numbers. Intensity of heat transfer is high in the right wall than the left wall.     

Finite element simulation of magnetoconvection inside a sinusoidal corrugated enclosure with discrete isoflux heating from below

A numerical investigation of the steady magnetoconvection in a sinusoidal corrugated enclosure has been performed. In this analysis, two vertical sinusoidal corrugated walls are maintained at a constant low temperature whereas a constant heat flux source whose length is varied from 20 to 80% of the reference length of the enclosure is discretely embedded at the bottom wall. The Penalty finite element method has been used to solve the governing Navier–Stokes and energy conservation equation of the fluid medium in the enclosure in order to investigate the effect of discrete heat source sizes on heat transfer for different values of Grashof number and Hartmann number. The values of the governing parameters are the Grashof number Gr (10³ to 10⁶), Hartmann number Ha (0 to 100) and Prandtl number Pr (0.71). The present numerical approach is found to be consistent and the solution is obtained in terms of stream functions and isotherm contours.     

Numerical Investigation on Natural Convection Inside the Side Ventilated Square Enclosure with Vertical Mid-Partition

A finite volume-based computational study of steady laminar natural convection inside the square enclosure with cold partition wall centrally placed on top and bottom is presented. The fluid considered is air with Prandtl number 0.71. Except the partition walls, all other walls were assumed as hot. The heights of inlet and outlet ports are constantly fixed as 20% of height of the enclosure. The height of the opening in the partition walls were 10%, 20%, and 30% of height of enclosure. The buoyancy-driven heat transfer mechanism inside the domain is influenced by the percentage of opening in the partition, Rayleigh number, and geometrical position of inlet and outlet. The cold partition walls attract the flow that subsequently influences the thermal modifications around the partition. The fluid flow and heat transfer were investigated for 81 cases with different positions of inlet and outlet and varying height of openings for Ra = 10³, 10⁴, and 10⁵. The cross flow between the vertical walls through the opening in the central partition wall was considered in this study. The formation of vortices and their sizes depends on the configuration of inlet and outlet ports. The higher temperature gradient occurs near the inlet and outlet port of vertical walls. Local Nusselt number is maximum just below the inlet for all cases. Due to the dominance of buoyancy forces, heat transfer rate increases when Rayleigh number increases for all the cases. The hydrodynamic block effect by the openings on the partition wall has significant effect on the velocity profile than on the heat transfer.     

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.     

Effects of corrugation frequency and aspect ratio on natural convection within an enclosure having sinusoidal corrugation over a heated top surface

Natural convection of a two-dimensional laminar steady-state incompressible fluid flow in a modified rectangular enclosure with sinusoidal corrugated top surface has been investigated numerically. The present study has been carried out for different corrugation frequencies on the top surface as well as aspect ratios of the enclosure in order to observe the change in hydrodynamic and thermal behavior with constant corrugation amplitude. A constant flux heat source is flush mounted on the top sinusoidal wall, modeling a wavy sheet shaded room exposed to sunlight. The flat bottom surface is considered as adiabatic, while the both vertical side walls are maintained at the constant ambient temperature. The fluid considered inside the enclosure is air having Prandtl number of 0.71. The numerical scheme is based on the finite element method adapted to triangular non-uniform mesh element by a non-linear parametric solution algorithm. The results in terms of isotherms, streamlines and average Nusselt numbers are obtained for the Rayleigh number ranging from 10³ to 10⁶ with constant physical properties for the fluid medium considered. It is found that the convective phenomena are greatly influenced by the presence of the corrugation and variation of aspect ratios.     

Numerical study of mixed convective heat transfer in a lid‐driven enclosure with rotating cylinders

A numerical simulation is performed to characterize the mixed convective transport in a three‐dimensional square lid‐driven enclosure with two rotating cylinders. The top wall is moving in the positive x‐direction, and the bottom wall is at a higher fixed temperature compared with all other isothermal walls. Both cylinders are rotating in its own plane about their centroidal axis. On the basis of rotation of both cylinders in clockwise or counter‐clockwise directions, four rotational models are studied. Various controlling parameters considered in the present study are Grashof number (10 ³ < Gr < 10 ⁵), rotating speed of the cylinder (5 < ω < 50), and the Reynolds number based on top wall movement is fixed to 100. The effect of cylinder rotation on the heat transfer of bottom wall is reported with the help of streamlines, contour plots of z‐component of vorticity, averaged and local Nusselt number, ratios of secondary flow and drag coefficient. It is observed that the heat transfer at the bottom wall is substantially dependent on the rotational model and rotational speed of the cylinder.     

Numerical investigation of natural convection in a square enclosure partially filled with horizontal layers of a porous medium

Two-dimensional buoyancy-induced flow and heat transfer inside a square enclosure partially occupied by copper metallic foam subjected to a symmetric side cooling and constant heat flux bottom heating was tested numerically. Finite Element Method was employed to solve the governing partial differential equations of the flow field and the Local Thermal Equilibrium model was used for the energy equation. The system boundaries were defined as lower heated wall by constant heat flux, cooled lateral walls, and insulated top wall. The three parameters elected to conduct the study are heater length (7 ≤ ζ ≤ 20 cm), constant heat flux (150 ≤ q″ ≤ 600 W m⁻²), and porous material thickness (5 ≤ H ≤ 20 cm). The porous material used was the copper metal foam of porosity = 0.9 and pore density PPI = 10, and saturated with a fluid of Prandtl number = 0.7. On the basis of the results obtained, it was concluded that at the porous layer thickness = 5 cm, the rate of heat transferred was (74.6%) higher than when the layer height was 20 cm (the cavity is fully filled) and at the same thickness it was found that the heat rate is (51.4%) higher than when using the half filling (H = 10 cm). Further, the local and mean Nusselt number is maximum when using the largest heater size and smallest porous layer thickness. Finally, better circulation and convective modes were observed at high values of heat flux.     

Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of Natural Convection in a Differentially Heated Square Enclosure Containing Heat Generating Low‐Prandtl Number Fluid

Lattice Boltzmann simulations were conducted for the free convective flow of a low‐Prandtl number (Pr = 0.0321) fluid with internal heat generation in a square enclosure having adiabatic top and bottom walls and isothermal side walls. The problem of free convection with volumetric heat source has represented itself in connection with advanced engineering applications, such as water‐cooled lithium–lead breeder blankets for nuclear fusion reactors and liquid metal sources of spallation neutrons for subcritical fission systems. A single relaxation time (SRT) thermal lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) was employed. While applying SRT, a D2Q9 model was used to simulate the flow field and temperature field. Results have been obtained for various Rayleigh numbers characterizing internal and external heating from 10³ to 10⁶. Flow and temperature fields in terms of stream function and isotherms in the enclosure were predicted for these cases. The temperature of the fluid in the enclosure was found higher than the heated wall temperature at high values of internal Rayleigh numbers. The internal heat generation affected the rate of heat transfer significantly as two convection loops are observed in the enclosure. The average Nusselt number at the heated and cold wall was determined for all the cases.     

Heat transfer inside a horizontal channel with an open trapezoidal enclosure subjected to a heat source of different lengths

The heat transfer phenomena inside a horizontal channel with an open trapezoidal enclosure subjected to a heat source of different lengths was investigated numerically in the present work. The heat source is considered as a local heating element of varying length, which is embedded at the bottom wall of the enclosure and maintained at a constant temperature. The air flow enters the channel horizontally at a constant cold temperature and a fixed velocity. The other walls of the enclosure and the channel are kept thermally insulated. The flow is assumed laminar, incompressible, and two‐dimensional, whereas the fluid is considered Newtonian. The results are presented in the form of the contours of velocity, isotherms, and Nusselt numbers profiles for various values of the dimensionless heat source lengths (0.16 ≤ ε ≤ 1). while, both Prandtl and Reynolds numbers are kept constant at (Pr = 0.71) and (Re = 100), respectively. The results indicated that the distribution of the isotherms depends significantly on the length of the heat source. Also, it was noted that both the local and the average Nusselt numbers increase as the local heat source length increases. Moreover, the maximum temperature is located near the heat source location.