Natural Convection From Isothermal Cubical Cavities With a Variety of Side-Facing Apertures

1987 ◽  
Vol 109 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Clausing ◽  
J. M. Waldvogel ◽  
L. D. Lister

An experimental investigation of heat transfer by natural convection from a smooth, isothermal cubic cavity with a variety of side-facing apertures is described in this paper. The study was motivated by the desire to predict the convective loss from large solar thermal-electric receivers and to understand the mechanisms which control this loss. Hence, emphasis is placed on the large Rayleigh number, Ra, regime with large ratios of the cavity wall temperature Tw to the ambient temperature T∞. A cryogenic wind tunnel with test section temperatures which are varied between 80 K and 310 K is used to facilitate deduction of the influences of the relevant parameters and to obtain large temperature ratios without masking the results by radiative heat transfer. A 0.4-m cubic cavity, which is mounted in the side wall of this tunnel, is used. The area of the aperture Aa and its location are key variables in this study. The data which are presented cover the ranges: 1 < Tw/T∞ < 3, L2/18 ≤ Aa ≤ L2, and 3 × 107 < Ra < 3 × 1010.

Author(s):  
K. Venkatadri ◽  
S. Abdul Gaffar ◽  
Ramachandra Prasad V. ◽  
B. Md. Hidayathulla Khan ◽  
O. Anwar Beg

Natural convection within trapezoidal enclosures finds significant practical applications. The natural convection flows play a prominent role in the transport of energy in energyrelated applications, in case of proper design of enclosures to achieve higher heat transfer rates. In the present study, a two-dimensional cavity with adiabatic right side wall is studied. The left side vertical wall is maintained at the constant hot temperature and the top slat wall is maintained at cold temperature. The dimensionless governing partial differential equations for vorticity-stream function are solved using the finite difference method with incremental time steps. The parametric study involves a wide range of Rayleigh number, Ra, 103 ≤ Ra ≤ 105 and Prandtl number (Pr = 0.025, 0.71 and 10). The fluid flow within the enclosure is formed with different shapes for different Pr values. The flow rate is increased by enhancing the Rayleigh number (Ra = 104 ). The numerical results are validated with previous results. The governing parameters in the present article, namely Rayleigh number and Prandtl number on flow patterns, isotherms as well as local Nusselt number are reported. 


1989 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 904-908 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Clausing ◽  
J. J. Berton

An investigation of natural convection from a heated, upward-facing, square, horizontal plate to a surrounding gas medium is described in this paper. The results of the experimental investigation provide an improved correlation for the natural convection regime by accounting for variable property effects and extend the applicable Rayleigh number (Ra) range of the correlation over previous research. The large Rayleigh number regime is emphasized. The value of the Richardson number (Ri) at which combined convection influences become important is also determined. The ratio of the plate wall temperature Tw to the ambient temperature T∞ is incorporated into the Nusselt number correlation in order to account for variable property influences. A cryogenic heat transfer tunnel, with test section temperatures that are varied between 80 K and 310 K, is used to help deduce the influences of the relevant parameters. The ranges of the dimensionless parameters investigated are 2 × 108 < Ra < 2 × 1011 and 1 < Tw/T∞ < 3.1.


Author(s):  
Om Singh ◽  
Suneet Singh ◽  
Shireesh B. Kedare

To reduce computational time for simulation of natural convection in open cavities, it is quite common to use a domain restricted to the cavity with approximate boundary conditions at the cavity opening. It had been shown that such approach leads to quite accurate solutions for high Rayleigh number (Ra) flows. Such approach has been extended to flows involving radiative heat transfer as well. However, it is important to note that the effect of radiation on the accuracy of restricted domain approach has not been evaluated. In the present work, a comparison of Nusselt numbers is obtained by restricted domain approach with those obtained by using extended domain approach. The convective as well as radiative Nusselt numbers are considered for comparison for various values of Ra and radiation conduction parameter (Nr). It is observed that the accuracy of the restricted domain approach varies with the radiation conduction parameter as well and the approach is found to be quite accurate for high values of Nr.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonam Singh ◽  
R. Bhargava

This paper presents a numerical study of natural convection within a wavy enclosure heated via corner heating. The considered enclosure is a square enclosure with left wavy side wall. The vertical wavy wall of the enclosure and both of the corner heaters are maintained at constant temperature,TcandTh, respectively, withTh>Tcwhile the remaining horizontal, bottom, top and side walls are insulated. A penalty element-free Galerkin approach with reduced gauss integration scheme for penalty terms is used to solve momentum and energy equations over the complex domain with wide range of parameters, namely, Rayleigh number (Ra), Prandtl number (Pr), and range of heaters in thex- andy-direction. Numerical results are represented in terms of isotherms, streamlines, and Nusselt number. It is observed that the rate of heat transfer depends to a great extent on the Rayleigh number, Prandtl number, length of the corner heaters and the shape of the heat transfer surface. The consistent performance of the adopted numerical procedure is verified by comparison of the results obtained through the present meshless technique with those existing in the literature.


1995 ◽  
Vol 117 (4) ◽  
pp. 910-917 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Heindel ◽  
F. P. Incropera ◽  
S. Ramadhyani

Three-dimensional numerical predictions and experimental data have been obtained for natural convection from a 3 × 3 array of discrete heat sources flush-mounted on one vertical wall of a rectangular cavity and cooled by the opposing wall. Predictions performed in a companion paper (Heindel et al., 1995a) revealed that three-dimensional edge effects are significant and that, with increasing Rayleigh number, flow and heat transfer become more uniform across each heater face. The three-dimensional predictions are in excellent agreement with the data of this study, whereas a two-dimensional model of the experimental geometry underpredicts average heat transfer by as much as 20 percent. Experimental row-averaged Nusselt numbers are well correlated with a Rayleigh number exponent of 0.25 for RaLz ≲ 1.2 × 108.


Author(s):  
Degan Gerard ◽  
Sokpoli Amavi Ernest ◽  
Akowanou Djidjoho Christian ◽  
Vodounnou Edmond Claude

This research was devoted to the analytical study of heat transfer by natural convection in a vertical cavity, confining a porous medium, and containing a heat source. The porous medium is hydrodynamically anisotropic in permeability whose axes of permeability tensor are obliquely oriented relative to the gravitational vector and saturated with a Newtonian fluid. The side walls are cooled to the temperature  and the horizontal walls are kept adiabatic. An analytical solution to this problem is found for low Rayleigh numbers by writing the solutions of mathematical model in polynomial form of degree n of the Rayleigh number. Poisson equations obtained are solved by the modified Galerkin method. The results are presented in term of streamlines and isotherms. The distribution of the streamlines and the temperature fields are greatly influenced by the permeability anisotropy parameters and the thermal conductivity. The heat transfer decreases considerably when the Rayleigh number increases.


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