Pseudosteady-State Natural Convection Inside Spheres

1975 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Y. Chow ◽  
R. G. Akins

Natural convection heat transfer to water contained within five different sized spheres was studied. Pseudosteady-state was maintained by keeping the driving force for convection constant, i.e., the temperature outside the sphere was increased steadily so that the temperature difference between the outside and the center remained constant. Flow visualization was used to determine flow patterns within the spheres. Laminar flow was found to exist below Rayleigh numbers of about 107. The flow patterns along with the position of the circulation centers are presented and compared with recent numerical solutions. The overall heat transfer in the laminar region was fitted by least squares and the following correlation obtained: Nu=0.80Ra0.30

Author(s):  
Mo Yang ◽  
Jin Wang ◽  
Kun Zhang ◽  
Ling Li ◽  
Yuwen Zhang

Detailed numerical analysis is presented for three-dimensional natural convection heat transfer in annulus with an internal concentric slotted cylinder. The internal slotted cylinder and the outer annulus are maintained at uniform but different temperatures. Governing equations are discretized using control volume technique based on staggered grid formulation and solved using SIMPLE algorithm with QUICK scheme. Flow and heat transfer characteristics are investigated for a Rayleigh number range of 10 to 106 while Prandtl number (Pr) is taken to be 0.7. The results indicate, at Rayleigh numbers below 105, the system shows two dimensional flow and heat transfer characteristics. On the other hand, the flow and heat transfer shows three dimensional characteristics while for Rayleigh numbers greater than 5×105. Comparison with experimental results indicated that the numerical solutions by three dimensional model can obtain more accuracy than the numerical solutions by two dimensional model. Besides, Numerical results show that the average equivalent conductivity coefficient of natural convection heat transfer of this problem can be enhanced by as much as 30% while relative slot width is more than 0.1.


1983 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Vasseur ◽  
L. Robillard ◽  
B. Chandra Shekar

The effect of density inversion on steady natural convection heat transfer of cold water, between two horizontal concentric cylinders of gap width, L, is studied numerically. Water near its freezing point is characterized by a density maximum at 4°C. Numerical solutions are obtained for cylinders with nonlinear Rayleigh numbers RA ranging from 2 × 103 to 7.6 × 104, a radius ratio 1.75 ≤ ra ≤ 2.6 and an inversion parameter γ, relating the temperature for maximum density with the cavity wall temperatures, between −2 and 2. The results obtained are presented graphically in the form of streamline and isotherm contour plots. The heat transfer characteristics, velocity profiles, and local and overall Nusselt numbers are studied. The results of the present study were found qualitatively valid when compared with an experimental investigation carried out in the past.


2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamed Al-Ahmadi ◽  
Ahmad Fakheri

Abstract Natural convection heat transfer from a horizontal helicoidal pipe is experimentally investigated for different coil-pitches. A modified characteristic length incorporating the tube diameter, the coil diameter, and the coil spacing, is proposed as the relevant scale for defining Nusselt and Rayleigh numbers. Using the proposed characteristic length, it is shown that the Nusselt number for horizontal helicoidal pipes can be determined using the available Nusselt versus Rayleigh number correlation for straight horizontal cylinders with high degree of accuracy over the range of the experimental data.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (10) ◽  
pp. 2385-2399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamel Milani Shirvan ◽  
Mojtaba Mamourian ◽  
Soroush Mirzakhanlari ◽  
A.B. Rahimi ◽  
R. Ellahi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the numerical solutions of surface radiation and combined natural convection heat transfer in a solar cavity receiver. The paper aims to discuss sundry issues that take place in the said model. Design/methodology/approach The numerical solutions are developed by means of second-order upwind scheme using the SIMPLE algorithm. Findings The effects of physical factors such as Rayleigh number (104 ≤ Ra ≤ 106), inclination angels of insulated walls (0º ≤ θ ≤ 10º) and the wall surface emissivity (0 ≤ ε ≤ 1) on natural convection-surface radiation heat transfer rate are analyzed. Impact of sundry parameters on flow quantities are discussed and displayed via graphs and tables. Stream lines and isothermal lines have also been drawn in the region of cavity. The numerical results reveal that increasing the Rayleigh number, wall surface emissivity and inclination angels of insulated walls in an open cavity enhances the mean total Nusselt number. The variations of the surface radiation and natural convection heat transfer mean Nusselt numbers are very small to the inclination angle of θ, while a significant change is noted for the case of Rayleigh number and emissivity. Originality/value To the best of authors’ knowledge, this model is reported for the first time.


2011 ◽  
Vol 110-116 ◽  
pp. 4451-4464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghalib Y. Kahwaji ◽  
Abbas S. Hussien ◽  
Omar M. Ali

In the present work, the natural convection heat transfer from horizontal cylinder with square cross section situated in a square enclosure, vented symmetrically from the top and the bottom was investigated numerically. The work investigate the effect of the Ra, enclosure width and opening size of the enclosure on the streamlines, isotherms and heat transfer results. The numerical work included the solution of the governing equations in the vorticity-stream function formulation which were transformed into body fitted coordinate system. The transformations are based initially on algebraic grid generation and elliptic grid generation to map the physical domain between the heated horizontal cylinder and the vented enclosure into a computational domain. A hybrid scheme finite volume based finite difference method was used. The study included the following ranges of the studied variables:- 0 < Ra ≤ 6.5× 105 1.5 ≤ W/H ≤ 4 0.375 < O/H ≤ 4 The numerical results were compared with experimental results, which showed good agreement. The effect of cylinder cross section, Ra, enclosure width, and opening size on the Nu, mass flowrate, flow patterns and isotherms were investigated. The results show that the cylinder cross section has a large influence on the results especially the Nu. The Nu is proportional with Ra and inversely proportional with enclosure width and opening size. The flow patterns and isotherms display the flow and temperature behaviors with changing studied variables. The results show that the starting of natural convection heat transfer depended on the cylinder cross-section, enclosure width and opening size in addition with Ra. In addition, the results display that the hydrodynamic and thermal boundary layer thickness decreases with increasing Ra. Nomenclature


2006 ◽  
Vol 129 (9) ◽  
pp. 1195-1202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed E. Ali

Experimental investigations have been reported on steady state natural convection from the outer surface of horizontal ducts in air. Five ducts have been used with aspect ratios (Γ=duct height/duct width) of 2, 1, and 0.5. The ducts are heated using internal constant heat flux heating elements. The temperatures along the surface and peripheral directions of the duct wall are measured. Longitudinal (circumference averaged) heat transfer coefficients along the side of each duct are obtained for laminar and transition regimes of natural convection heat transfer. Total overall averaged heat transfer coefficients are also obtained. Longitudinal (circumference averaged) Nusselt numbers are evaluated and correlated using the modified Rayleigh numbers for transition regime using the axial distance as a characteristic length. Furthermore, total overall averaged Nusselt numbers are correlated with the modified Rayleigh numbers, the aspect ratio, and area ratio for the laminar and transition regimes. The longitudinal or total averaged heat transfer coefficients are observed to decrease in the laminar region and to increase in the transition region. Laminar regimes are obtained only at very small heat fluxes, otherwise, transitions are observed.


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