Simulation studies on multi-mode heat transfer from an open cavity with a flush-mounted discrete heat source

Prominent results of a simulation study on conjugate convection with surface radiation from an open cavity with a traversable flush mounted discrete heat source in the left wall are presented in this paper. The open cavity is considered to be of fixed height but with varying spacing between the legs. The position of the heat source is varied along the left leg of the cavity. The governing equations for temperature distribution along the cavity are obtained by making energy balance between heat generated, conducted, convected and radiated. Radiation terms are tackled using radiosity-irradiation formulation, while the view factors, therein, are evaluated using the crossed-string method of Hottel. The resulting non-linear partial differential equations are converted into algebraic form using finite difference formulation and are subsequently solved by Gauss–Seidel iterative technique. An optimum grid system comprising 111 grids along the legs of the cavity, with 30 grids in the heat source and 31 grids across the cavity has been used. The effects of various parameters, such as surface emissivity, convection heat transfer coefficient, aspect ratio and thermal conductivity on the important results, including local temperature distribution along the cavity, peak temperature in the left and right legs of the cavity and relative contributions of convection and radiation to heat dissipation in the cavity, are studied in great detail.     

Conjugate mixed convection with surface radiation from a vertical electronic board with multiple discrete heat sources

The problem of combined conduction-mixed convection-surface radiation from a vertical electronic board provided with three identical flush-mounted discrete heat sources is solved numerically. The cooling medium is air that is considered to be radiatively transparent. The governing equations for fluid flow and heat transfer are converted from primitive variable form to stream function-vorticity formulation. The equations, thus obtained, are normalised and then are converted into algebraic form using a finite volume based finite difference method. The resulting algebraic equations are then solved using Gauss–Seidel iterative method. An optimum grid system comprising 151 grids along the board and 111 grids across the board is chosen. The effects of various parameters, such as modified Richardson number, surface emissivity and thermal conductivity on temperature distribution along the board, maximum board temperature and relative contributions of mixed convection and radiation to heat dissipation are studied in detail. Further, the contributions of free and forced convection components of mixed convection to board temperature distribution and peak board temperature are brought out. The exclusive roles played by surface radiation and buoyancy in the present problem are clearly elucidated.     

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.     

Parametric studies and correlations for combined conduction-mixed convection–radiation from a non-identically and discretely heated vertical plate

The present paper reports the parametric studies and correlations for the problem of combined conduction-mixed convection–radiation from a non-identically and discretely heated vertical plate. Three discrete heat sources of non-identical heights but with identical volumetric rate of heat generation are assumed to be flush-mounted in a thin vertical plate. The longest and the shortest heaters are provided at the leading and trailing edges of the plate, while the remaining heater is located centrally. The governing fluid flow and heat transfer equations are considered in their full strength without the boundary layer approximations and are solved using the finite volume method. A computer code is written to solve the problem and various parametric studies have been performed. The relative roles of free convection, forced convection and radiation in various fluid flow and heat transfer results have been elucidated. In conclusion, based on a large set of data generated from the code, correlations for maximum non-dimensional plate temperature, average non-dimensional plate temperature and mean friction coefficient have been evolved.     

MHD mixed convection–radiation interaction along a permeable surface immersed in a porous medium in the presence of Soret and Dufour’s Effects

This work is focused on the numerical modeling of steady, laminar, heat and mass transfer by MHD mixed convection from a semi-infinite, isothermal, vertical and permeable surface immersed in a uniform porous medium in the presence of thermal radiation and Dufour and Soret effects. A mixed convection parameter for the entire range of free-forced-mixed convection is employed and the governing equations are transformed into non-similar equations. These equations are solved numerically by an efficient, implicit, iterative, finite-difference scheme. The obtained results are checked against previously published work on special cases of the problem and are found to be in excellent agreement. A parametric study illustrating the influence of the thermal radiation coefficient, magnetic field, porous medium inertia parameter, concentration to thermal buoyancy ratio, and the Dufour and Soret numbers on the fluid velocity, temperature and concentration as well as the local Nusselt and the Sherwood numbers is conducted. The obtained results are shown graphically and the physical aspects of the problem are discussed.     

An analytical treatment for combined heat transfer by radiation,convection and conduction within a heat insulating wall structure

An analytical procedure has been proposed to attack a highly conjugate thermal problem associated with radiation, convection and conduction within a heat insulating wall structure. Firstly, an analytical solution is derived for fully-developed mixed convective flow through parallel plates. Secondly, the resulting expressions for convection are coupled with radiation and conduction equations to form a set of heat balance equations for each heat transfer surface. Illustrative calculations are conducted to estimate heat transfer rates through a heat insulating roof structure with an aluminum partition with high reflectivity, subject to solar radiation in summer. The effect of an aluminum partition on the heat insulation is elucidated.     

Radiation effects on combined convection over a vertical flat plate embedded in a porous medium of variable porosity

The present paper is concerned with the study of radiation effects on the combined (forced-free) convection flow of an optically dense viscous incompressible fluid over a vertical surface embedded in a fluid saturated porous medium of variable porosity with heat generation or absorption. The effects of radiation heat transfer from a porous wall on convection flow are very important in high temperature processes. The inclusion of radiation effects in the energy equation leads to a highly non-linear partial differential equations which are transformed to a system of ordinary differential equations using non-similarity transformation. These equations are then solved numerically using implicit finite-difference method subject to appropriate boundary and matching conditions. A parametric study of the physical parameters such as the particle diameter-based Reynolds number, the flow based Reynolds number, the Grashof number, the heat generation or absorption co-efficient and radiation parameter is conducted on temperature distribution. The effects of radiation and other physical parameters on the local skin friction and on local Nusselt number are shown graphically. It is interesting to observe that the momentum and thermal boundary layer thickness increases with the radiation and decrease with increase in the Prandtl number.     

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.     

Radiation effect on mixed convection along a vertical plate with uniform surface temperature

This paper investigates the effect of radiation on the forced and free convection flow of an optically dense viscous incompressible fluid along a heated vertical flat plate with uniform free stream and uniform surface temperature with Rosseland diffusion approximation. With appropriate transformations, the boundary layer equations governing the flow are reduced to local nonsimilarity equations valid in the forced convection regime as well as in the free convection regime. A group of transformation is, also, introduced to reduce the boundary layer equations to a set of local nonsimilarity equations valid in both the forced and free convection regimes. Solutions of the governing equations are obtained by employing the implicit finite difference methods together with Keller box scheme and are expressed in terms of local shear stress and local rate of heat transfer for a range of values of the pertinent parameters.     

Laminar free-convective heat transfer from a vertical isothermal plate to water at low temperatures with variable physical properties

All studies concerning laminar free convection along a vertical isothermal plate in water at low temperatures have been conducted assuming constant dynamic viscosity and thermal conductivity both taken at ambient or film temperature. In this study the problem has been treated taking into account the temperature dependence of all water physical properties. The results are obtained with the numerical solution of the boundary layer equations. The variation of μ and k with temperature has a small influence on wall heat transfer but a strong influence on wall shear stress. These quantities show a significant reduction at density extremum.     

Natural convection due to solar radiation over a non-absorbing plate with and without heat losses

Natural convection over a non-reflecting, non-absorbing, ideally transparent semi-infinite vertical flat plate due to absorption of incident radiation (solar radiation) is considered. The absorbed radiation acts as a distributed source which initiates buoyancy-driven flow and convection in the absorbing layer. The plate when heated by the absorbing fluid loses heat to the surroundings from its external side. Solution of the governing equations of the flow under these circumstances is non-similar because of both the heat source term in the energy equation and the temperature boundary condition at the plate. A local non-similar technique is used to obtain solutions for a wide range of the dimensionless distance along the plate and of the dimensionless loss coefficient to the surroundings. The results show that the temperature distribution has a maximum temperature in the depth of the fluid rather than on the plate. A new definition for a local heat transfer coefficient between the plate and the absorbing fluid is introduced which is based on the local maximum temperature rise in the fluid. A formula to calculate this heat transfer coefficient is given for the anticipated range of the loss coefficient.     

Radiation effects on Marangoni convection boundary layer over a permeable surface

The problem of Marangoni convection boundary layer flow that can be formed along the interface of two immiscible fluids when the wall is permeable, where there is suction or injection effect, is considered. Similarity equations are obtained through the application of similarity transformation techniques. The effects of suction/injection and radiation parameters on the heat transfer characteristics are numerically studied using the shooting method for a fixed value of the Prandtl number (Pr=0.7). Numerical results are obtained for the surface temperature gradient or the heat transfer rate as well as the temperature profiles for some values of the governing parameters. Comparisons with known results from the open literature show very good agreements. The results indicate that the heat transfer rate at the surface decreases as the radiation parameter increases. Further, results show that multiple (dual) solutions exist for a certain range of the governing parameters.     

Melting heat and thermal radiation effects in stretched flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid

The incompressible flow of a non-Newtonian fluid with mixed convection along a stretching sheet is analyzed. The heat transfer phenomenon is discussed through thermal radiation. The effects of the melting heat transfer and heat generation/absorption are also taken. Suitable transformations are utilized to attain the nonlinear ordinary differential expressions. The convergent series solutions are presented. The fluid flow, temperature,and surface heat transfer rate are examined graphically. It is observed that the velocity decreases when the relaxation time increases while increases when the retardation time is constant. The results also reveal that the temperature distribution reduces when the radiation parameter increases.     

Unsteady Free Convection along an Infinite Vertical Flat Plate Embedded in a Stably Stratified Fluid-Saturated Porous Medium

The problem of unsteady free convection heat transfer from a one-dimensional (parallel) flow along an infinite vertical flat plate embedded in a thermally stratified fluid-saturated porous medium is considered. Flows are induced by a sudden change in the arbitrary temporal plate temperature. By a formal reduction of the corresponding boundary value problems to well-known Fourier heat conduction problems, analytical solutions of the Darcy and energy equations are obtained. Several special cases are discussed in detail.     

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.     

Simultaneous heat and mass transfer by natural convection from a plate embedded in a porous medium with thermal dispersion effects

The problem of steady, laminar, simultaneous heat and mass transfer by natural convection flow over a vertical permeable plate embedded in a uniform porous medium in the presence of inertia and thermal dispersion effects is investigated for the case of linear variations of both the wall temperature and concentration with the distance along the plate. Appropriate transformations are employed to transform the governing differential equations to a non-similar form. The transformed equations are solved numerically by an efficient implicit, iterative, finite-difference scheme. The obtained results are checked against previously published work on special cases of the problem and are found to be in good agreement. A parametric study illustrating the influence of the porous medium effects, heat generation or absorption, wall suction or injection, concentration to thermal buoyancy ratio, thermal dispersion parameter, and the Schmidt number on the fluid velocity, temperature and concentration as well as the skin-friction coefficient and the Nusselt and Sherwood numbers is conducted. The results of this parametric study are shown graphically and the physical aspects of the problem are highlighted and discussed.     

Effect of surface radiation heat transfer on the optimal distribution of discrete heat sources under natural convection

Experiments have been conducted for natural convection heat transfer from protruding discrete heat sources, mounted at different positions on a substrate, to determine the optimal configuration, and to study the effect of surface radiation on them, which reduces their temperature upto 12 %. The optimal configuration has been determined by a non-dimensional geometric distance parameter (λ). An empirical correlation has been proposed between the non-dimensional steady state temperature (θ) and λ, by taking into account the effect of surface radiation heat transfer.     

Free convection in non-newtonian fluids along a horizontal plate in a porous medium

A similarity solution is presented for the problem of free convection boundary layer in power-law type non-Newtonian fluids along a horizontal plate with variable wall temperature or heat flux distribution. The effects of surface mass transfer are included. Numerical results are presented for the details of the velocity and temperature fields. A discussion is provided for the effect of viscosity index on the surface heat transfer rate.     

Mixed convection in non-Newtonian fluids along a vertical plate with variable surface heat flux in a porous medium

A nonsimilar boundary layer analysis is presented for the problem of mixed convection in power-law type non-Newtonian fluids along a vertical plate with power-law surface heat flux distribution. The mixed convection regime is divided into two regions, namely, the forced convection dominated regime and the free convection dominated regime. The two solutions are matched. Numerical results are presented for the details of the velocity and temperature fields. A discussion is provided for the effect of viscosity index on the surface heat transfer rate. Received on 13 October 1998     

Nonsimilar Solutions for Mixed Convection in Non-Newtonian Fluids Along Horizontal Surfaces in Porous Media

A nonsimilar boundary layer analysis is presented for the problem of mixed convection in power-law type non-Newtonian fluids along horizontal surfaces with variable heat flux distribution. The mixed convection regime is divided into two regions, namely, the forced convection dominated regime and the free convection dominated regime. The two solutions are matched. Numerical results are presented for the details of the velocity and temperature fields. A discussion is provided for the effect of viscosity index on the surface heat transfer rate.