Mixed Convection in a Vented Square Cavity with a Heat Conducting Horizontal Solid Circular Cylinder

Abstract

A finite element method based computational study of steady laminar mixed convection flow inside a vented square cavity with a heat conducting horizontal solid circular cylinder placed at the center of the cavity is carried out in this paper. The developed mathematical model is governed by the coupled equations of continuity, momentum and energy. The present work simulates practical systems such as cooling of electronic devices, ventilation of building etc. The effects of cylinder size and Richardson number on fluid flow and heat transfer performance are investigated. Richardson number is varied from 0.0 to 5.0 and the cylinder diameter is varied from 0.0 to 0.6. The results for the case of without cylinder are compared to those with cylinder to observe the effects cylinder on the flow and heat transfer inside the cavity. The phenomenon inside the cavity for the case of with and without cylinder is analyzed through streamline and isotherm patterns. It is found that the streamlines, isotherms, average Nusselt number at the heated surface, average temperature of the fluid in the cavity and dimensionless temperature at the cylinder center strongly depend on the Richardson number as well as the diameter of the cylinder.

Keywords: Mixed convection, finite element method, Richardson number, cylinder diameter, vented cavity and diffusion.

DOI: 10.3329/jname.v5i2.2504

Journal of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering 5(2)(2008) 37-46