Three-dimensional convective interactions in an inclined longitudinal air layer

The results of a three-dimensional numerical simulation of thermal-gravitational convection for an arbitrary direction of the gravity force are presented. The calculations were carried out for a rectangular domain with the solid-wall aspect ratio 4:0.5:1. The cavity filled with air was heated from below. The convection regime was laminar with Rayleigh numbers Ra = 10³–10⁵. The cavity was gradually turned about the short side in different directions in the range 0–90° to study how the initial conditions affect the convection. The average heat transfer characteristics and the spatial flow patterns are presented. A comparison with two-dimensional calculations is given. The conditions of the occurrence of a hysteresis in the steady state of convection are found, a regime map is constructed, and the specific features of the interaction of heat fluxes are described.     

Ice-water convection in an inclined rectangular cavity filled with a porous medium

This paper reports on the results of a numerical study on the equilibrium state of the convection of water in the presence of ice in an inclined rectangular cavity filled with a porous medium. One side of the cavity is maintained at a temperature higher than the fusion temperature while the opposite side is cooled to a temperature lower than the fusion temperature. The two remaining sides are insulated. Results are analysed in terms of the density inversion parameter, the tilt angle, and the cooling temperature. It appears that the phenomenon of density inversion plays an important role in the equilibrium of an ice-water system when the heating temperature is below 20°. In a vertical cavity, the density inversion causes the formation of two counterrotating vortices leading to a water volume which is wider at the bottom than at the top. When the cavity is inclined, there exist two branches of solutions which exhibit the bottom heating and the side heating characteristics, respectively (the Bénard and side heating branches). Due to the inversion of density, the solution on the Bénard branch may fail to converge to a steady state at small tilt angles and exhibits an oscillating behavior. On the side heating branch, a maximum heat transfer rate is obtained at a tilt angle of about 70° but the water volume was found to depend very weakly on the inclination of the cavity. Under the effect of subcooling, the interplay between conduction in the solid phase and convection in the liquid leads to an equilibrium ice-water interface which is most distorted at some intermediate cooling temperature.     

The Onset and Nonlinear Regimes of Convection in a Two-Layer System of Fluid and Porous Medium Saturated by the Fluid

The onset of convection and its nonlinear regimes in a heated from below two-layer system consisting of a horizontal pure fluid layer and porous medium saturated by the same fluid is studied under the conditions of static gravitational field. The problem is solved numerically by the finite-difference method. The competition between the long-wave and short-wave convective modes at various ratios of the porous layer to the fluid layer thicknesses is analyzed. The data on the nature of convective motion excitation and flow structure transformation are obtained for the range of the Rayleigh numbers up to quintuple supercriticality. It has been found that in the case of a thick porous layer the steady-state convective regime occurring after the establishment of the mechanical equilibrium becomes unstable and gives way to the oscillatory regime at some value of the Rayleigh number. As the Rayleigh number grows further the oscillatory regime of convection is again replaced by the steady-state convective regime.     

Interferometric study of buoyancy-driven convection in a differentially heated circular fluid layer

The present study is concerned with buoyancy-driven convection experiments in a circular horizontal differentially heated layer of air. The radius-to-height ratio of 14, and Rayleigh numbers of 5,861 and 12,124 have been considered. A Mach–Zehnder interferometer has been used to visualize the convection patterns in the fluid layer. The fluid layer has been imaged at view angles of 0, 45 and 90°. Results obtained show that fringe patterns appropriate for a cavity square in plan are seen in the fluid layer during the early stages of the experiments. After the passage of the initial transients, steady fringes have been observed in the fluid layer for a Rayleigh number of 5,861. At Ra=12,124, a dominant pattern was detectable combined with mild unsteadiness. The steady thermal field at Ra=5,861 displayed symmetry with respect to the viewing angle. A stronger three dimensionality was seen at the higher Rayleigh number. The average steady state Nusselt numbers were found to vary with view angle from 1.91 to 2.04 at Ra=5,861 and 2.28 to 2.43 at Ra = 12,124. The cavity-averaged Nusselt numbers are in good agreement with the available correlations.     

Numerical study of convection of a liquid heated from below

The equilibrium of a liquid heated from below is stable only for small values of the vertical temperature gradient. With increase of the temperature gradient a critical equilibrium situation occurs, as a result of which convection develops. If the liquid fills a closed cavity, then there is a discrete sequence of critical temperature gradients (Rayleigh numbers) for which the equilibrium loses stability with respect to small characteristic disturbances. This sequence of critical gradients and motions may be found from the solution of the linear problem of equilibrium stability relative to small disturbances. If the temperature gradient exceeds the lower critical value, then (for steady-state heating conditions) there is established in the liquid a steady convective motion of a definite amplitude which depends on the magnitude of the temperature gradient. Naturally, the amplitude of the steady convective motion cannot be determined from linear stability theory; to find this amplitude we must solve the problem of convection with heating from below in the nonlinear formulation. A nonlinear study of the steady motion of a liquid in a closed cavity with heating from below was made in [1]. In that study it was shown that for Rayleigh numbers R which are less than the lower critical value R_c steady-state motions of the liquid are not possible. With R>R_c a steady convection arises, whose amplitude near the threshold is small and proportional to (R–R_c)^1/2 (the so-called soft instability)-this is in complete agreement with the results of the phenom-enological theory of Landau [2, 3].Primarily, various versions of the method of expansion in powers of the amplitude [4–8] have been used, and, consequently, the results obtained in those studies are valid only for values of R which are close to R_c, i. e., near the convection threshold.It is apparent that the study of developed convective motion far from the threshold can be carried out only numerically, with the use of digital computers. In [9, 10] the numerical methods have been successfully used for the study of developed convection in an infinite plane horizontal liquid layer.The present paper undertakes the numerical study of plane convective motions of a liquid in a closed cavity of square section. The complete nonlinear system of convection equations is solved by the method of finite differences on a digital computer for various values of the Rayleigh number, the maximal value exceeding by a factor of 40 the minimal critical value R_c. The numerical solution permits following the development of the steady motion which arises with R>R_c in the course of increase of the Rayleigh number and permits study of the oscillatory motions which occur at some value of the parameter R. The heat transfer through the cavity is studied. The corresponding linear problem on equilibrium stability is solved approximately by the Galerkin method.     

Natural convection in an inclined quadrantal cavity heated and cooled on adjacent walls

Natural convective flow and heat transfer in an inclined quadrantal cavity is studied experimentally and numerically. The particle tracing method is used to visualize the fluid motion in the enclosure. Numerical solutions are obtained via a commercial CFD package, Fluent. The working fluid is distilled water. The effects of the inclination angle, ? and the Rayleigh number, Ra on fluid flow and heat transfer are investigated for the range of angle of inclination between 0° ? ? ? 360°, and Ra from 10⁵ to 10⁷. It is disclosed that heat transfer changes dramatically according to the inclination angle which affects convection currents inside, i.e. flow physics inside. A fairly good agreement is observed between the experimental and numerical results.     

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.     

Influence of inclination angle on buoyancy-driven convection in triangular enclosure filled with a fluid-saturated porous medium

The present investigation deals with the numerical analysis of steady-state laminar buoyancy-driven convection in an inclined triangular enclosure filled with fluid saturated porous media using the Darcy law equation. One wall of the enclosure is isothermally heated and the other is cooled, while the remaining wall is adiabatic. The effect of inclination angle on natural convection is investigated by varying the angle of inclination (φ) between 0° and 360°. The governing transformed equations are solved numerically using a finite-difference method. Obtained results are shown in the form of streamlines, isotherms, mean Nusselt numbers and dimensionless stream function for different values of the Rayleigh number Ra in the range 100 ≤ Ra ≤ 1,000. It is found that the values of the maximum and minimum mean Nusselt number are reached for φ = 330° and φ = 210° , respectively. However, the lowest flow strength is formed at φ = 240° for all values of Ra.     

Unsteady Natural Convection Within a Porous Enclosure of Sinusoidal Corrugated Side Walls

Numerically investigation of free convection within a porous cavity with differential heating has been performed using modified corrugated side walls. Sinusoidal hot left and cold right walls are assumed to receive sudden differentially heating where top and bottom walls are insulated. Air is considered as working fluid and is quiescent, initially. Numerical experiments reveal 3 distinct stages of developing pattern including initial stage, oscillatory intermediate, and finally steady-state condition. Implicit Finite Volume Method with TDMA solver is used to solve the governing equations. This study has been performed for the Rayleigh numbers ranging from 100 to 10,000. Outcomes have been reported in terms of isotherms, streamline, velocity and temperature plots and average Nusselt number for various Ra, corrugation frequency, and corrugation amplitude (CA). The effects of sudden differential heating and its resultant transient behavior on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics have been shown for the range of governing parameters. The present results show that the transient phenomena are enormously influenced by the variation of the Rayleigh Number with CA and frequency.     

Entropy generation and natural convection in square cavities with wavy walls

The aim of the present work is to study the entropy generation in the natural convection process in square cavities with hot wavy walls through numerical simulations for different undulations and Rayleigh numbers, while keeping the Prandtl number constant. The results show that the hot wall geometry affects notably the heat transfer rate in the cavity. It has been found in the present numerical study that the mean Nusselt number in the case of heat transfer in a cavity with wavy walls is lower, as compared to heat transfer in a cavity without undulations. Based on the obtained dimensionless velocity and temperature values, the distributions of the local entropy generation due to heat transfer and fluid friction, the local Bejan number, and the local entropy generation are determined and plotted for different undulations and Rayleigh numbers. The study is performed for Rayleigh numbers 10³ < Ra < 10⁵, irreversibility coefficients 10^?4 < φ < 10^?2, and Prandtl numbers Pr = 0.71. The total entropy generation is found to increase with increasing undulation number.     

Numerical investigation of transient laminar natural convection of air in a tall cavity

Transient laminar natural convection of air in a tall cavity has been studied numerically. The Navier-Stokes and Energy equations were solved by the accurate projection method (PmIII), in which the derived Poisson equation for pressure potential was solved by the approximate factorization one method (AF1). The aspect ratio of the tall cavity is 16, and the Prandtl number of air filled in the tall cavity is 0.71. To obtain the numerical results of heat transfer by natural convection of air in the tall cavity, the second order schemes for the space and time discretizations were utilized. The availability of the numerical algorithm was also assessed by considering the natural convection of air in a square cavity which is differentially heated from side walls. It was found that the overall Nusselt numbers for the Rayleigh numbers covering the range from 1000 to 100000 reveal a good agreement with measured data. When Ra takes the value in the range from 100000 to 600000, the overall Nusselt number have a relative deviation less than 18% from the experimental data. For the suddenly heating mode, the multicellular flow pattern occurs when Rayleigh number belongs to the range of Ra from 7000 to 20000. or greater than 115000. At the critical number of cats' eye instability, the cell distance is just twice of the cavity width. This is rather similar to the observed result for Bénard problem. When Ra is over 115000, a further increase of heat flux across the tall cavity causes serious cell-breaking. There are 8 cells when Ra = 600000.     

Heat transfer characteristics of internally heated liquid pools at high Rayleigh numbers

Detailed numerical analysis is presented for buoyancy driven flow of a Newtonian fluid contained in a square enclosure for high Rayleigh (Ra) numbers. Natural convection is due to internal heating sources, which are assumed to be uniformly distributed within the enclosure. All walls of the cavity are maintained at constant temperature. Flow and heat transfer characteristics are investigated for a Ra number range of 10⁷ to 10¹² while Prandtl (Pr) number is taken to be 7.0. Governing equations (in primitive variables) are discretised using control volume technique based on staggered grid formulation. These equations are solved using SIMPLER algorithm of Patankar. Flow and heat transfer characteristics, streamlines, isotherms and average wall Nusselt (Nu) number, are presented for whole range of Ra number considered. Finally, present results for average wall Nu numbers are compared with experimental observations obtained from open literature. It is concluded that both results are in very good agreement, which confirmed the accuracy of the scaling used for present investigation. Received on 15 November 1999     

Free-convection Flow of a Binary Mixture in a Thin Porous Ring

The problem of natural convection of a binary mixture in a thin porous ring is considered. In the simplified formulation steady-state solutions of the problem are obtained. The stability of these solutions is investigated and a stability map is plotted in the plane of the Rayleigh numbers calculated from the temperature and concentration. It is shown that an auto-oscillation convection regime is established in the ring under certain conditions. It is also found that there is a region of variation of the seepage and diffusion-seepage Rayleigh numbers in which three steady-state solutions are stable.     

Numerical Simulation of Thermal and Concentration Natural Convection in a Porous Cavity in the Presence of an Opposing Flow

Two-dimensional steady-state thermal concentration convection in a rectangular porous cavity is simulated numerically. The temperature and concentration gradients are horizontal and the buoyancy forces act either in the same or in opposite directions. The flow through the porous medium is described by the Darcy-Brinkman or Forchheimer equations. The SIMPLER numerical algorithm based on the finite volume approach is used for solving the problem in the velocity-pressure variables.Numerous series of calculations were carried out over the range Ra _t =3·10⁶ and 3·10⁷, 10^-6 < Da < 1, 1 < N < 20, Le=10 and 100, where Ra, Da, Le, and N are the Rayleigh, Darcy, and Lewis numbers and the buoyancy ratio, respectively. It is shown that the main effect of the presence of the porous medium is to reduce the heat and mass transfer and attenuate the flow field with decrease in permeability. For a certain combination of the Ra, Le, and N numbers the flow has a multicellular structure. The mean Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are presented as functions of the governing parameters.     

Lattice Boltzmann simulation of natural convection in nanofluid-filled 2D long enclosures at presence of magnetic field

In this paper, the effects of a magnetic field on natural convection flow in filled long enclosures with Cu/water nanofluid have been analyzed by lattice Boltzmann method. This study has been carried out for the pertinent parameters in the following ranges: the Rayleigh number of base fluid, Ra = 10³–10⁵, the volumetric fraction of nanoparticles between 0 and 6 %, the aspect ratio of the enclosure between A = 0.5 and 2. The Hartmann number has been varied from Ha = 0 to 90 with interval 30 while the magnetic field is considered at inclination angles of θ = 0°, 30°, 60° and 90°. Results show that the heat transfer decreases by the increment of Hartmann number for various Rayleigh numbers and the aspect ratios. Heat transfer decreases with the growth of the aspect ratio but this growth causes the effect of the nanoparticles to increase. The magnetic field augments the effect of the nanoparticles at high Rayleigh numbers (Ra = 10⁵). The effect of the nanoparticles rises for high Hartmann numbers when the aspect ratio increases. The rise in the magnetic field inclination improves heat transfer at aspect ratio of A = 0.5.     

Natural convection in an inclined enclosure containing internal energy sources and cooled from below

Natural convection in an inclined enclosure from below and containing internally heated fluid has been investigated using a finite difference calculation procedure. Results have been obtained for Rayleigh number values up to 10⁶ and for inclination angles of 30 and 60°. For internal Rayleigh numbers that are much larger than the external Rayleigh number, the flow rises in the interior and moves down both the hot and cold walls. On the other hand, if the external Rayleigh number has a larger magnitude, the flow moves upwards along the hot surface and downwards along the cold surface. For the latter situation, the inner core is multicellular in nature at large external Rayleigh numbers. The average heat flux ratio along the cold surface (convective heat flux/corresponding conduction heat flux) increases with increasing external Rayleigh number and decreasing internal ratio is non-monotonic in nature. The heat flux ratio along both surfaces is observed to be strongly dependent on the inclination angle at high external Rayleigh numbers. A maximum in the local heat flux along the cold surface is obtained in the vicinity of x/L = 1 where hot fluid, either from the interior or directly from the opposite hot wall, meets the surface. Along the hot wall, a maximum in the heat flux ra flo     

Convection in a closed cavity heated from below when equilibrium conditions are disrupted

The equilibrium of a fluid is possible in a closed cavity in the presence of a strictly vertical temperature gradient (heating from below) [1]. There is a distinct sequence of critical Rayleigh numbers R_i at which this equilibrium loses its stability relative to low characteristic perturbations. The presence of different finite perturbations, unavoidable in an experiment, leads to the absence of a strict equilibrium when R < R₁. The problem of the influence of the perturbation on the convection conditions near the critical points arises in this context [2, 3]. The case in which the cavity is heated not strictly from below is investigated in [2] and the case in which the perturbation of the equilibrium is due to the slow movement of the upper boundary of the region is investigated in [3]. In [2, 3] the perturbation has the structure of a first critical motion and thus the results of these papers coincide qualitatively. The perturbation of the temperature in the horizontal sections of the boundary, which creates a perturbation with a two-vortex structure corresponding to the second critical point R₂, is examined in this paper. A similar type of perturbation is characteristic for experiments in which the thermal conductivity properties of the fluid and the cavity walls are different. The nonlinear convection conditions are investigated numerically by the net-point method.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 203–207, March–April, 1977.The author wishes to thank D. B. Lyubimova, V. I. Chernatynskii, and A. A, Nepomnyashchii for their helpful comments.     

Natural convection in partially cooled tilted cavities

Two-dimensional numerical simulations of laminar natural convection in a partially cooled, differentially heated inclined cavities are performed. One of the cavity walls is entirely heated to a uniformly high temperature (heat source) while the opposite wall is partially cooled to a lower temperature (heat sink). The remaining walls are adiabatic. The tilt angle of the cavity is varied from 0° (heated from left) to −90° (heated from top). The fast false implicit transient scheme (FITS) algorithm, developed earlier by the same authors, is modified to solve the derived variables vorticity-streamfunction formulation. The effects of aspect ratio (AR), sink–source ratio and tilt angle on the average Nusselt number are examined through a parametric study; solutions are obtained for two Grashof numbers, 10⁵ and 10⁷. Flow patterns and isotherms are used to investigate the heat transfer and fluid flow mechanisms inside the cavity. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

多孔介质中对流的周期性解与混沌

研究多孔介质内部有热源的对流传热．用高阶差分研究在不同的渗流瑞利（Ｒａｙｌｅｉｇｈ）数Ｒａ下对流随时间进展的演化情况（为比较起见也适当考察倾斜角的影响）．Ｒａ计算到大约１６０００．结果表明：在Ｒａ较小时对流是稳定的，Ｒａ增大到４６００出现了非稳定的但为周期性的解．随着Ｒａ进一步增大，出现一些混沌窗口．对于有侧斜角的情形，还出现阵发性     

Natural convection in inclined two dimensional rectangular cavities

Steady two-dimensional natural convection in fluid filled cavities is numerically investigated. The channel is heated from below and cooled from the top with insulated side walls and the inclination angle is varied. The field equations for a Newtonian Boussinesq fluid are solved numerically for three cavity height based Rayleigh numbers, Ra = 10⁴, 10⁵ and 10⁶, and several aspect ratios. The calculations are in excellent agreement with previously published benchmark results. The effect of the inclination of the cavity to the horizontal with the angle varying from 0° to 180° and the effect of the startup conditions on the flow pattern, temperature distribution and the heat transfer rates have been investigated. Flow admits different configurations at different angles as the angle of inclination is increased depending on the initial conditions. Regardless of the initial conditions Nusselt number Nu exhibits discontinuities triggered by gradual transition from multiple cell to a single cell configuration. The critical angle of inclination at which the discontinuity occurs is strongly influenced by the assumed startup field. The hysteresis effect previously reported is not always present when the calculations are reversed from 90° to 0°. A comprehensive study of the flow structure, the Nu variation with varying angle of inclination, the effect of the initial conditions and the hysteresis effect are presented.