Interaction of turbulent natural convection and surface thermal radiation in inclined square enclosures

Two-dimensional numerical studies of flow and temperature fields for turbulent natural convection and surface radiation in inclined differentially heated enclosures are performed. Investigations are carried out over a wide range of Rayleigh numbers from 10⁸ to 10¹², with the angle of inclination varying between 0° and 90°. Turbulence is modeled with a novel variant of the k–ε closure model. The predicted results are validated against experimental and numerical results reported in literature. The effect of the inclination of the enclosure on pure turbulent natural convection and the latter’s interaction with surface radiation are brought out. Profiles of turbulent kinetic energy and effective viscosity are studied to observe the net effect on the intensity of turbulence caused by the interaction of natural convection and surface radiation. The variations of local Nusselt number and average Nusselt number are presented for various inclination angles. Marked change in the convective Nusselt number is found with the orientation of enclosure. Also analyzed is the influence of change in emissivity on the flow and heat transfer. A correlation relevant to practical applications in the form of average Nusselt number, as a function of Rayleigh number, Ra, radiation convection parameter, N _RC and inclination angle of the enclosure, φ is proposed.     

Numerical and experimental study of heat transfer in a tall vertical closed cavity

In this work the numerical and experimental results of heat transfer in a vertical tall closed cavity are presented. The cavity has an aspect ratio of 20, one of the vertical walls receive a constant and uniform heat flux, while the opposite wall is kept at a constant temperature. The remaining walls are assumed adiabatic. The cavity is full of air. The computational fluid dynamics software Fluent 6.3 was used for the simulation and an experimental prototype was built to obtain the heat transfer coefficients. The air temperature and the fluid velocity values are higher when emissivity (ε) is 0.03 (almost pure natural convection). The experimental total heat transfer coefficient increases between 119.9 and 159.9 % when the emissivity of the walls changes from 0.03 to 0.95.     

Three-dimensional numerical investigation of heat transfer for plate fin heat exchangers

In the present study, the potential of rectangular fins with 30° and 90° angle and 10 mm offset from the horizontal direction for heat transfer enhancement in a plate fin heat exchanger is numerically evaluated with conjugated heat transfer approach. The rectangular fins are mounted on the flat plate channel. The numerical computations are performed by solving a steady, three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equation and an energy equation by using Fluent software program. Air is taken as working fluid. The study is carried out at Re = 400 and inlet temperatures, velocities of cold and hot air are fixed as 300, 600 K and 1.338, 0.69 m/s, respectively. Colburn factor j versus Re design data is presented by using Fluent. The results show that the heat transfer is increased by 10 % at the exit of channel with fin angle of 30° when compared to channel without fin for counter flow. The heat transfer enhancement with fins of 30° and 90° for different values of Reynolds number with 300, 500 and 800 and for varying fin heights, fin intervals and also temperature distributions of fluids on the top and bottom surface of the channel are investigated for parallel and counter flow.     

Enhanced heat transfer performances of molten salt mixed convection in a vertical annular duct

The mixed convection heat transfer of upward molten salt flow in a vertical annular duct is experimentally and numerically studied. The heat transfer performances of mixed convection are measured under Reynolds number 2,500–12,000 and inlet temperature 300–400 °C, and Nusselt number of molten salt flow with cooled inner wall monotonically increases with buoyancy number. The mixed convection is further simulated by low-Reynolds number k-ε model and variable properties, and the heat transfer tendency from numerical results agrees with that from experiments. At low Reynolds number, the natural convection plays more important role in the mixed convection. As the buoyancy number rises, the thickness of flow boundary layer near the inner wall increases, while the effective thermal conductivity remarkably rises, so the enhanced heat transfer of mixed convection is mainly affected by the effective thermal conductivity due to turbulent diffusion.     

Numerical computation of natural convection in an isosceles triangular cavity with a partially active base and filled with a Cu–water nanofluid

This paper discusses the results of a study related to natural convection cooling of a heat source located on the bottom wall of an inclined isosceles triangular enclosure filled with a Cu water-nanofluid. The right and left walls of the enclosure are both maintained cold at constant equal temperatures, while the remaining parts of the bottom wall are insulated. The study has been carried out for a Rayleigh number in the range 10⁴ ≤ Ra ≤ 10⁶, for a heat source length in the range 0.2 ≤ ε ≤0.8, for a solid volume fraction in the range 0 ≤ ?≤0.06 and for an inclination angle in the range 0° ≤ δ≤45°. Results are presented in the form of streamline contours, isotherms, maximum temperature at the heat source surface and average Nusselt number. It is noticed that the addition of Cu nanoparticles enhances the heat transfer rate and therefore cooling effectiveness for all values of Rayleigh number, especially at low values of Ra. The effect of the inclination angle becomes more noticeable as one increases the value of Ra. For high Rayleigh numbers, a critical value for the inclination angle of δ = 15° is found for which the heat source maximum temperature is highest.     

Free convection heat transfer from a horizontal fin attached cylinder between confined nearly adiabatic walls

Steady state two-dimensional free convection heat transfer from a horizontal, isothermal fin attached cylinder, located between nearly two adiabatic walls is studied experimentally using a Mach–Zehnder interferometer. Effects of the walls inclination angel (θ) on heat transfer from the cylinder is investigated for Rayleigh number ranging from 1000 to 15,500. Two cylinders with different diameters of D = 10 and 20 mm are used to cover wide Rayleigh range. Results indicate that, heat transfer phenomena differ for different Rayleigh number. For Rayleigh numbers lower than 5500, heat transfer rate from cylinder surface is lower than the heat transfer from a single cylinder. In this range by the use of walls, heat transfer from the cylinder decreases slightly and walls’ inclination does not change heat transfer rate from the cylinder surface. For Rayleigh number ranging from 5500 to 15,500, amount of heat transfer from the cylinder surface is less than that of a single cylinder. However, by adding nearly adiabatic walls to experimental model heat transfer mechanism differs and chimney effect between fin and walls increases the heat transfer rate from the cylinder surface. By increasing the walls inclination angel from 0° to 20°, the chimney effect between walls and fin diminishes and heat transfer rate from the cylinder surface is approaching to the heat transfer rate of fin attached cylinder without adiabatic walls.     

Combined radiation and natural convection in a rectangular cavity with a transparent wall and containing a non-participating fluid

This paper describes a numerical method for the study of combined natural convection and radiation in a rectangular, two-dimensional cavity containing a non-participating (i.e. transparent) fluid. One wall of the cavity is isothermal, being heated either by solar radiation or independently. The opposite wall is partially transparent, permitting radiation exchanges between the cavity and its surroundings and/or the Sun; that wall also exchanges heat by convection from its external surface to the surroundings. The other two walls are adiabatic: convection and radiation there are balanced, so that there is no heat transfer through those walls. The equations of motion and energy are solved by finite difference methods. Coupled to these equations are the radiative flux boundary conditions which are used to determine the temperature distribution along the non-isothermal walls. A two-band radiation model has been employed. Results are presented for a square cavity with a vertical hot wall at 150 °C, the ambient at 20 °C and 10⁴ ? Ra ? 3 × 10⁵, in the absence of direct insolation. The effects on the flow and heat transfer in the cavity of radiation and external convection have been examined. More extensive results will be presented in subsequent papers.     

Effects of radiation on turbulent natural convection in channel flows

A computational study has been carried out to analyse complex interaction of radiation with turbulent natural convective flow of dry and humid air in open-ended channels. Transient flow simulations are undertaken in the channel with one uniformly heated wall and adiabatic side walls for different values of emissivity of active walls with and without participating medium. To adequately present turbulence and radiation, a computational model included large eddy simulations for the turbulent flow coupled with discrete ordinates method for radiation transfer. Spectral line-based weighted-sum-of-grey-gases for the absorption properties of water vapour has been adopted. Complex three-dimensional vortical structures are identified which directly affect the temperature distribution on the heated wall. Including wall to wall radiation resulted in significant changes in the heat transfer, reaching 14 °C temperature drop at the hot wall with wall emissivity of 0.9. Mixing and cooling rates in this case were increased by up to 25%. Including gas radiation for the humid air with the water vapour molar fraction of 0.02 corresponding to saturated conditions at inlet temperature of 25 °C did not have a significant effect on the mean flow and temperature values comparing with wall to wall radiation. However, turbulent statistics have changed significantly resulting in a delayed transition to turbulence near the active wall of the channel and increased turbulent activity near the cold wall. The model developed in the present study is also applicable in fire management, where the aim is to reduce the damage that occurs when a PV module is exposed to high temperatures.     

Natural convection heat transfer on surfaces of copper micro-wires

The natural convection heat transfer characteristics and mechanism for copper micro-wires in water and air were investigated experimentally and numerically. The wires with diameters of 39.9, 65.8 and 119.1 μm were placed horizontally in water inside of a sealed tube and in air of a large room, respectively. Using Joule heating, the heat transfer coefficients and Nusselt numbers of natural convection for micro-wires in ultra pure water and air were obtained. A three dimensional incompressible numerical model was used to investigate the natural convection, and the prediction with this model was in reasonable accordance with the experimental results. With the decrease of micro-wire diameter, the heat transfer coefficient of natural convection on the surface of micro-wire becomes larger, while the Nu number of natural convection decreases in water and air. Besides, the change rate of Nu number in water decreases apparently with the increase of heat flux and the decrease of wire diameter, which is larger than that in air. The thickness of boundary layer on the wall of micro-wire becomes thinner with the decrease of diameter in both water and air, but the ratio of boundary layer thickness in water to the diameter increases. However, there is almost no change of this ratio for natural convection in air. As a result, the proportion of conduction in total heat transfer of natural convection in water increases, while the convective heat transfer decreases. The velocity distribution, temperature field and the boundary layer in the natural convection were compared with those of tube with conventional dimension. It was found that the boundary layer around the micro-wire is an oval-shaped film on the surface, which was different from that around the conventional tube. This apparently reduces the convection strength in the natural convection, thus the heat transfer presents a conduction characteristic.     

Heat transfer in specularly reflecting tubes

Heat exchange inside a specularly reflecting tube is analysed. Expressions are obtained for heat transfer between cross-sections, between incremental wall annuli, between finite wall annuli, and combinations of the above. The expressions are related to the angle factor for opposed discs, but are infinite summations; they are easily evaluated, requiring some 20 emissivity terms. The basic disc-to-disc expression also represents the fraction of radiation leaving a disc that is still propagating at some distance along the tube, including reflection. Special case results are obtained for the radiant loss from double and single ended holes. For the practical application considered, it was found that conduction and radiation could be treated separately, permitting evaluation of a radiation loss factor for a specularly reflecting tube between two heat reservoirs     

Experimental and numerical study on laminar natural convection in a cavity heated from bottom due to an inclined fin

Natural convection heat transfer in an inclined fin attached square enclosure is studied both experimentally and numerically. Bottom wall of enclosure has higher temperature than that of top wall while vertical walls are adiabatic. Inclined fin has also adiabatic boundary conditions. Numerical solutions have been done by writing a computer code in Fortran platform and results are compared with Fluent commercial code and experimental method. Governing parameters are Rayleigh numbers (8.10⁵ ≤ Ra ≤ 4 × 10⁶) and inclination angle (30° ≤ and ≤ 120°). The temperature measurements are done by using thermocouples distributed uniformly at the wall of the enclosure. Remarkably good agreement is obtained between the predicted results and experimental data. A correlation is also developed including all effective parameters on heat transfer and fluid flow. It was observed that heat transfer can be controlled by attaching an inclined fin onto wall.     

Interaction of surface radiation with conjugate mixed convection from a vertical channel with multiple discrete heat sources

Important results of a numerical study performed on combined conduction–mixed convection–surface radiation from a vertical channel equipped with three identical flush-mounted discrete heat sources in its left wall are provided here. The channel has walls of identical height with the spacing varied by varying its aspect ratio (AR). The cooling medium is air that is considered to be radiatively transparent. The heat generated in the channel gets conducted along its walls before getting dissipated by mixed convection and radiation. The governing equations for fluid flow and heat transfer are considered without boundary layer approximations and are transformed into vorticity–stream function form and are later normalized. The resulting equations are solved, along with relevant boundary conditions, making use of the finite volume method. The computer code written for the purpose is validated both for fluid flow and heat transfer results with those available in the literature. Detailed parametric studies have been performed and the effects of modified Richardson number, surface emissivity, thermal conductivity and AR on various pertinent results have been looked into. The significance of radiation in various regimes of mixed convection has been elucidated. The relative contributions of mixed convection and radiation in carrying the mandated cooling load have been thoroughly explored.     

Flow of variable thermal conductivity fluid due to inclined stretching cylinder with viscous dissipation and thermal radiation

The aim of the present study is to investigate the flow of the Casson fluid by an inclined stretching cylinder. A heat transfer analysis is carried out in the presence of thermal radiation and viscous dissipation effects. The temperature dependent thermal conductivity of the Casson fluid is considered. The relevant equations are first simplified under usual boundary layer assumptions, and then transformed into ordinary differential equations by suitable transformations. The transformed ordinary differential equations are computed for the series solutions of velocity and temperature. A convergence analysis is shown explicitly. Velocity and temperature fields are discussed for different physical parameters by graphs and numerical values. It is found that the velocity decreases with the increase in the angle of inclination while increases with the increase in the mixed convection parameter. The enhancement in the thermal conductivity and radiation effects corresponds to a higher fluid temperature. It is also found that heat transfer is more pronounced in a cylinder when it is compared with a flat plate. The thermal boundary layer thickness increases with the increase in the Eckert number. The radiation and variable thermal conductivity decreases the heat transfer rate at the surface.     

Double-Diffusive Free Convection Flow Past an Inclined Plate Embedded in a Non-Darcy Porous Medium Saturated with a Nanofluid

In this investigation, we intend to present the influence of the prominent Soret effect on double-diffusive free convection heat and mass transfer in the boundary layer region of a semi-infinite inclined flat plate in a nanofluid saturated non-Darcy porous medium. The transformed boundary layer ordinary differential equations are solved numerically using the shooting and matching technique. Consideration of the nanofluid and the coupled convective process enhanced the number of non-dimensional parameters considerably thereby increasing the complexity of the present problem. A wide range of parameter values are chosen to bring out the effect of Soret parameter on the free convection process with varying angle of inclinations making the wall geometry from vertical to horizontal plate. The effects of angle of inclination and Soret parameter on the flow, heat and mass transfer coefficients are analyzed. The numerical results obtained for the velocity, temperature, volume fraction, and concentration profiles, local wall temperature, local nanoparticle concentration, and local wall concentration reveal interesting phenomenon, and some of these qualitative results are presented through the plots.     

Flow of couple stress fluid with variable thermal conductivity

The steady flow and heat transfer of a couple stress fluid due to an inclined stretching cylinder are analyzed. The thermal conductivity is assumed to be temperature dependent. The governing equations for the flow and heat transfer are transformed into ordinary differential equations. Series solutions of the resulting problem are computed. The effects of various interested parameters, e.g., the couple stress parameter, the angle of inclination, the mixed convection parameter, the Prandtl number, the Reynolds number, the radiation parameter, and the variable thermal conductivity parameter, are illustrated. The skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number are computed and analyzed. It is observed that the heat transfer rate at the surface increases while the velocity and the shear stress decrease when the couple stress parameter and the Reynolds number increase. The temperature increases when the Reynolds number increases.     

Nonlinear three-dimensional stretched flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid with convective condition,thermal radiation,and mixed convection

The effect of non-linear convection in a laminar three-dimensional Oldroyd-B fluid flow is addressed. The heat transfer phenomenon is explored by considering the non-linear thermal radiation and heat generation/absorption. The boundary layer assumptions are taken into account to govern the mathematical model of the flow analysis. Some suitable similarity variables are introduced to transform the partial differential equations into ordinary differential systems. The Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg fourth-and fifth-order techniques with the shooting method are used to obtain the solutions of the dimensionless velocities and temperature. The effects of various physical parameters on the fluid velocities and temperature are plotted and examined. A comparison with the exact and homotopy perturbation solutions is made for the viscous fluid case, and an excellent match is noted. The numerical values of the wall shear stresses and the heat transfer rate at the wall are tabulated and investigated. The enhancement in the values of the Deborah number shows a reverse behavior on the liquid velocities. The results show that the temperature and the thermal boundary layer are reduced when the nonlinear convection parameter increases. The values of the Nusselt number are higher in the non-linear radiation situation than those in the linear radiation situation.     

Numerical analysis of laminar natural convection in enclosures with fins attached to an active wall

Vertical enclosures with conducting fins attached to the cold wall were considered. Side walls were kept at constant but different temperatures, while horizontal top and bottom walls were insulated. A conjugate formulation was used for the mathematical formulation of the problem, and a computer program based on the control volume approach and the SIMPLE algorithm was developed. Computations were performed to investigate the effects of the fin configuration and Rayleigh number on the flow structure and heat transfer. It was observed that the heat transfer rate through an enclosure can be controlled by attaching fins to the wall(s) of the enclosure. At low Rayleigh numbers (conduction controlled regime), the heat transfer rate increases with the increasing number of fins and the fin length. However, at higher Rayleigh numbers (convection dominant regimes), the heat transfer rate can be decreased or increased by properly choosing the number of fins and the fin lengths. Received on 07 April 1997     

Natural convection and conduction heat transfer in open shallow cavities with bounding walls

A numerical study has been carried out on inclined open shallow cavities, which are formed by a wall and horizontal fins. Constant heat flux is applied on the surface of the wall inside the cavity while its other surface was kept isothermal. The wall and the fins are conductive. Conjugate heat transfer by natural convection and conduction is studied by numerically solving equations of mass, momentum and energy. Streamlines and isotherms are produced, heat and mass transfer is calculated. A parametric study is carried out using following parameters: Rayleigh number from 10⁶ to 10¹², conductivity ratio from 1 to 60, open cavity aspect ratio from 1 to 0.125, dimensionless end wall thickness from 0.05 to 0.20, horizontal walls from 0.01 to 0.15 and inclination of the end wall from 90° to 45°. It is found that the volume flow rate and Nusselt number are a decreasing function of the cavity aspect ratio, horizontal fin thickness and conductivity ratio. They are an increasing function of end wall thickness and inclination angle, except in the latter case optima exist at high Rayleigh numbers.     

Effects of walls temperature variation on double diffusive natural convection of Al2O3–water nanofluid in an enclosure

The effect of wall temperature variations on double diffusive natural convection of Al₂O₃–water nanofluid in a differentially heated square enclosure with constant temperature hot and cold vertical walls is studied numerically. Transport mechanisms of nanoparticles including Brownian diffusion and thermophoresis that cause heterogeneity are considered in non-homogeneous model. The hot and cold wall temperatures are varied, but the temperature difference between them is always maintained 5 °C. The thermophysical properties such as thermal conductivity, viscosity and density and thermophoresis diffusion and Brownian motion coefficients are considered variable with temperature and volume fraction of nanoparticles. The governing equations are discretized using the control volume method. The results show that nanoparticle transport mechanisms affect buoyancy force and cause formation of small vortexes near the top and bottom walls of the cavity and reduce the heat transfer. By increasing the temperature of the walls the effect of transport mechanisms decreases and due to enhanced convection the heat transfer rate increases.     

A numerical simulation of combined radiation and natural convection heat transfer in a square enclosure heated by a centric circular cylinder

A numerical simulation of combined natural convection and radiation in a square enclosure heated by a centric circular cylinder and filled with absorbing-emitting medium is presented. The ideal gas law and the discrete ordinates method are used to model the density changes due to temperature differences and the radiation heat transfer correspondingly. The influence of Rayleigh number, optical thickness and temperature difference on flow and temperature fields along with the natural convection, radiation and total Nusselt number at the source surfaces is studied. The results reveal that the radiation heat transfer as well as the optical thickness of the fluid has a distinct effect on the fluid flow phenomena, especially at high Rayleigh number. The heat transfer and so the Nusselt number decreases with increase in optical thickness, while increases greatly with increase in temperature difference. The variation in radiation heat transfer with optical thickness and temperature difference is much more obvious as comparison with convection heat transfer.