Analysis of distributed thermal management policy for energy-efficient processing of materials by natural convection

Natural convection is the governing phenomena in many material processing applications. The conventional method of uniform heating at the bottom wall of an enclosure may result in inadequate thermal mixing and poor temperature distribution leading energy wastage. In this work, an alternative, energy-efficient method of distributed heating of the cavity is studied and compared with the isothermal bottom wall heating case in enhancing the thermal mixing and improving the temperature distribution in the cavity. Steady laminar natural convection of various fluids of industrial importance (Pr = 0.015, 07, 10, 1000) in the range of Ra = 10³–10⁵ is studied in a differentially heated cavity and in two cases of discretely heated square cavities. Detailed analysis is carried out by visualizing the heat flow by heatlines. The thermal mixing and temperature uniformity in each case are quantified in terms of cup-mixing temperature and root-mean square deviation (RMSD), respectively. It is found that thermal management policy of distributed heating significantly influences the thermal mixing and temperature uniformity in the enclosures. In a case with multiple discrete heat sources, a remarkable uniformity in temperature across the cavity is achieved with moderate thermal mixing.     

Numerical Prediction of Natural Convection Occurring in Building Components: A Double-Population Lattice Boltzmann Method

In this article, a double-population thermal lattice Boltzmann method is proposed to solve the problem of the heated cavity with imposed temperatures. This family of problems can be considered as a test model for building physics application. A Taylor series expansion- and least-square-based lattice Boltzmann method (TLLBM) has been implemented in order to use a non-uniform mesh. This allowed us to investigate, at reasonable computational cost, the laminar and transitional flow fields (10³ ≤ Ra ≤ 10⁸). The numerical results, concerning the heat and mass transfers in the cases tested, are in good agreement with those from the literature. In order to demonstrate the possibilities of the method described in the article, applications are described covering double-skin facades and solar collectors or local heaters.     

Numerical study of natural convection and acoustic waves using the lattice Boltzmann method

In this paper, the lattice Boltzmann method is used to study the acoustic waves propagation inside a differentially heated square enclosure filled with air. The waves are generated by a point sound source located at the center of this cavity. The main aim of this simulation is to simulate the interaction between the thermal convection and the propagation of these acoustic waves. The results have been validated with those obtained in the literature and show that the effect of natural convection on the acoustic waves propagation is almost negligible for low Rayleigh numbers (Ra ≤ 10⁴), which begins to appear when the Rayleigh number begins to become important (Ra ≥ 10⁵) and it becomes considerable for large Rayleigh numbers (Ra ≥ 10⁶) where the thermal convection is important.     

Numerical study of mixed convection in a ventilated square enclosure with the lattice Boltzmann method

In this article, numerical study of heat transfer by convection in a square cavity was investigated. The vertical walls of the cavity are differentially heated and the horizontal walls are considered adiabatic. A ventilation jet is created by a fan placed in the cavity. A lattice Boltzmann model for incompressible flow equation is used to simulate the problem. A parametric study was performed presenting the influence of Reynolds number (20 ≤ Re?≤?500), Rayleigh number (10≤Ra?≤?10⁺⁶), and fan position (0.2?≤?L_F≤0.8). It has been observed that heat transfer rate increases with the Reynolds number increasing and it is maximal for the L_F=0.2.     

Simulation of high Rayleigh number natural convection in a square cavity using the lattice Boltzmann method

A thermal lattice Boltzmann method based on the BGK model has been used to simulate high Rayleigh number natural convection in a square cavity. The model uses the double populations approach to simulate hydrodynamic and thermal fields. The traditional lattice Boltzmann method on a uniform grid has unreasonably high grid requirements at higher Rayleigh numbers which renders the method impractical. In this work, the interpolation supplemented lattice Boltzmann method has been utilized. This is shown to be effective even at high Rayleigh numbers. Numerical results are presented for natural convection in a square cavity with insulated horizontal walls and isothermal vertical walls maintained at different temperatures. Very fine grids (wall y⁺ < 0.3) have been used for the higher Rayleigh number simulations. A universal structure is shown to exist in the mean velocity turbulent boundary layer profile for y⁺ < 10. This agrees extremely well with previously reported experimental data. The numerical results (for Rayleigh numbers up to 10¹⁰) are in very good agreement with the benchmark results available in the literature. The highlight of the calculations is that no turbulence model has been employed.     

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.     

Numerical implementation of thermal boundary conditions in the lattice Boltzmann method

This work proposed a non-equilibrium mirror-reflection scheme to implement thermal boundary conditions for the two-distribution lattice Boltzmann method (TLBM). The study showed that the most popular non-equilibrium bounce-back scheme would become inadequate when the predictions of temperature gradient were examined in TLBM. This work used the native method in TLBM to verify temperature gradient instead of the conventional finite difference approximation. The simulation results demonstrated that the mirror-reflection scheme is a scheme of second-order accuracy and can predict the temperature and temperature gradient correctly. With help of calculating the heat flux on the boundary, this work also suggested a more efficient and realistic way to determine the Nusselt number in Rayleigh–Bénard convection problems.     

Effect of Nanoparticles on the Hysteresis Loop in Mixed Convection within a Two-Sided Lid-Driven Inclined Cavity Filled with a Nanofluid

The present work deals with numerical modeling of mixed convection flow in a two-sided lid driven inclined square enclosure filled with water-Al₂O₃ nanofluid. The limiting cases of a cavity heated from below and cooled from above and the one differentially heated are recovered respectively for inclination angles 0° and 90°. The moving walls of the cavity are pulled in opposite directions with the same velocity and maintained at constant but different temperatures while the remaining walls are kept insulated. The numerical resolution of the studied problem is based on the lattice Boltzmann method. A parametric study is conducted and a set of graphical results is presented and discussed to illustrate the effects of the presence of nanoparticles and enclosure inclination angle on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics. The governing parameters of this problem are the Richardson number (varied from 0.1 to 10⁶), the nanoparticles volume fraction (varied from 0 to 0.04) and the inclination angle (varied from 0° to 180°). The critical conditions leading to the transition from monocellular flow to multicellular flow and vice versa are determined. In the common ranges of Richardson number and inclination angle where both monocellular and tri-cellular patterns coexist, the heat transfer is seen to be strongly reduced by the latter.     

Combined Effects of Slip Motion and Boundary Conditions on Enhanced Heat Transfer in Natural Convection Flows of Enclosed Nanofluids

The experimental studies dealing with natural convection of nanofluids in differentially heated enclosures demonstrate that the addition of nanoparticles to a pure base liquid is substantially detrimental, which can be ascribed to the formation of two stagnant fluid layers near the top and bottom adiabatic walls. Thus, if the horizontal walls are differentially heated instead of being perfectly insulated, the consequent development of a pair of concentration boundary layers near them may possibly imply a heat transfer enhancement. In this connection, a two-phase mixture model is employed to perform a numerical study of laminar natural convection in a square cavity containing water suspensions of alumina nanoparticles with a diameter of 33 nm and an average volume fraction in the range 0.001–0.04, assuming that Brownian diffusion and thermophoresis are the primary slip mechanisms between solid and liquid phases. The cavity is differentially heated at sides, whereas the horizontal walls are assumed to be either adiabatic or one heated and the other cooled, with a Rayleigh number in the range 4 × 10⁵–3 × 10⁶. It is found that the heating-from-below configuration is featured by periodic heat transfer, with a rate remarkably higher than that typical of the pure base liquid.     

Numerical investigation of low Prandtl number effect on mixed convection in a horizontal channel by the lattice Boltzmann method

The main purpose of this study is to numerically investigate the Prandtl number effect on mixed convection in a horizontal channel heated from below using the thermal lattice Boltzmann method (TLBM). The double-population model with two different lattices is used, in particular, the D2Q9 for the velocity field and D2Q5 for the thermal field. The developed lattice Boltzmann method code to simulate the fluid flow and heat transfer in the channel was validated with available literature results based on classical numerical methods, especially the finite volume method for Pr = 6.4 and the finite difference method for Pr = 0.667. The results obtained with the TLBM have shown good agreement with the conventional methods cited. The dynamic and thermal characteristics of the fluid flow were examined in the field of low Prandtl number, such that 0.05 ≤ Pr ≤ 0.667, and also compared to Pr = 6.4; for Ra = 2420 and 7400, the Reynolds number was fixed at 1. The results showed that the influence is relatively significant for the dynamic structure of flow convection for Pr ≤ 0.3 and is little influential beyond this value.     

MHD Turbulent and Laminar Natural Convection in a Square Cavity utilizing Lattice Boltzmann Method

In this study, the lattice Boltzmann method was used to solve the turbulent and laminar natural convection in a square cavity. In this paper a fluid with Pr = 6.2 and different Rayleigh numbers (Ra = 10³, 10⁴,10⁵ for laminar flow and Ra = 10⁷, 10⁸,10⁹ for turbulent flow) in the presence of a magnetic field (Ha = 0, 25, 50, and 100) was investigated. (Results show that the magnetic field drops the heat transfer in the laminar flow as the heat transfer behaves erratically toward the presence of a magnetic field in a turbulent flow. Moreover, the effect of the magnetic field is marginal for a turbulent flow in contrast with a laminar flow.The greatest influence of the magnetic field is observed at Ra = 10⁵ from Ha = 0 to 100 as the heat transfer decreases significantly.     

Benchmark Solution for Time-Dependent Natural Convection Flows with an Accelerated Full-Multigrid Method

A computational procedure is presented with an accelerated full-multigrid scheme for an efficient modeling of time-dependent buoyancy-driven flows. The smoother is the iterative red-and-black successive overrelaxation (RBSOR) scheme. In order to improve the convergence, an acceleration parameter, Γ, is implemented in the classical full-multigrid procedure. It is shown that an optimal value of Γ = 3.75 minimizes the number of iterations needed for convergence. Numerical results are presented and compared with available investigations for an 8:1 differentially heated enclosure and a square heated cavity. Solutions for Prandtl number Pr = 0.71, Rayleigh number Ra = 3.4 × 10⁵ for the 8:1 heated enclosure, and 10⁵ ≤ Ra ≤ 10⁹ for the square cavity are presented and show excellent agreement.     

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 cavity with a wavy wall

In the present work, a numerical study of the effect of a hot wavy wall of a laminar natural convection in an inclined square cavity, differentially heated, was carried out. This problem is solved by using the partial differential equations, which are the vorticity transport, heat transfer and stream function in curvilinear co-ordinates. The tests were performed for different inclination angles, amplitudes and Rayleigh numbers while the Prandtl number was kept constant. Two geometrical configurations were used namely one and three undulations.The results obtained show that the hot wall undulation affects the flow and the heat transfer rate in the cavity. The mean Nusselt number decreases comparing with the square cavity. The trend of the local heat transfer is wavy. The frequency of the latter is different from the undulated wall frequency.     

FINITE FREQUENCY EXTERNAL MODULATION IN DOUBLY DIFFUSIVE CONVECTION

Convective oscillations in porous and fluid media are studied numerically. A two-dimensional, square, differentially heated cavity, filled with a porous medium saturated by a binary fluid or simply by a binary fluid, is considered. This cavity is subjected to linear harmonic oscillations in the vertical direction. The formulation is based on the Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer-Boussinesq model. The time dependent Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer-Boussinesq equations are solved using a pseudo-spectral Legendre collocation method. The instantaneous and mean characteristics of the flows are studied and discussed. An intensification of the heat and mass transfers is observed at low frequency for sufficiently high vibration intensity. A comparison between the response to the imposed vibrations is made for Darcy numbers varying from Da = 10^-7 to Da = 10.     

基于混合热格子玻尔兹曼模型的液滴蒸发数值模拟

采用格子玻尔兹曼方法(LBM)的单组分伪势模型与有限差分耦合的混合热格子玻尔兹曼模型(TLBM)对液滴蒸发过程进行了研究。首先,通过对液滴在方腔内蒸发过程进行模拟,验证了所采用计算方法及程序的有效性。随后,模拟了液滴撞击高温壁面后的蒸发过程,研究了壁面温度、液滴邦德数和液滴雷诺数对蒸发过程的影响。结果表明,壁面温度、液滴邦德数和液滴雷诺数的增加均会造成液滴撞击高温壁面后蒸发速率的增大。     

Double-Diffusive Natural Convection in a Mixture-Filled Cavity with Walls' Opposite Temperatures and Concentrations

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with natural convection flows evolving inside an ended and differentially heated cavity, which is filled either with an air or an air–CO₂ mixture. The investigation was conducted through the laminar regime to analyze buoyancy ratio changes' effect on heat and mass transfers both in aiding and opposing flows. The thermal Rayleigh number was varied from 10³ to 10⁷. Streamlines, isotherms, iso-concentrations, and local and average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are provided to demonstrate the convective flow induced. The governing equations are solved by finite volume method using SIMPLEC algorithm to handle the pressure–velocity coupling. The buoyancy ratio effect on dynamic, thermal, and mass fields is noteworthy, exhibiting both the competition between thermosolutal forces and fields' stratification. From the results, it turned out that, in general, when the buoyancy ratio is: (1) positive, thermosolutal buoyancy forces are cooperative, (2) nil, solutal buoyancy forces are weak and the flow is merely thermoconvective, (3) negative and greater than ?1, buoyancy effects are competing and thermal convection dominates, (4) ?1, buoyancy effects are canceled and heat and mass transfers are driven only by diffusion, and (5) less than ?1, buoyancy forces compete with a dominant solutal convection.     

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.     

Numerical investigation of coupled natural convection and radiation in a differentially heated cubic cavity filled with humid air. Effects of the cavity size

A numerical study of natural convection with surface and air/H₂O mixture radiation in a differentially heated cubic square cavity is presented. The coupled flow and heat transfers in the cavity are predicted by coupling a finite volume method with a spectral line weighted sum of gray gase model to describe gas radiative properties. The radiative transfer equation is solved by means of the discrete ordinate method. Simulations are performed at Ra?=?10⁶, considering different combinations of passive wall and/or gas radiation properties and different cavity length. It was found that in presence of a participative medium representative of building, cavity length has a strong influence on temperature and velocity fields which affect the global circulation and heat transfers in the cavity. For each steady-state solution, the convective and radiative contributions to the global heat transfer are discussed. More specifically, boundary layer thickness, thermal stratification parameter, and three-dimensional effects are compared to pure convective case results. The results suggest that radiative effects, often considered as negligible in view of the relatively low optical thickness, may not be neglected when trying to predict regime transitions.     

Numerical exploration of 1 + 2 type laminar natural convection in a differentially heated square cavity using Chebyshev spectral collocation method

In this paper, the Chebyshev spectral collocation method is applied to explore the unsteady two dimensional (1 + 2 type) laminar natural convection in a differentially heated square cavity at a Rayleigh number (Ra) of 10⁷. The method has embedded the traditional Chorin's algorithm so as to avoid the trouble of seeking the pressure field in the buoyancy driven wall-jet flow. The sensitivity of the δ− parameter has been numerically investigated. It is found that when the δ value is over 11.6173, numerical instability occurs. Comparing the maximum horizontal velocity component with the existing numerical data obtained by solving the Poisson's equation of pressure field reveals that the Chorin's algorithm should be inapplicable for the solution of the benchmark problem of natural convection at Ra = 10⁷ in thermal science.