A numerical study of mixed convection in a square cavity with a heat conducting square cylinder at different locations

Abstract

Numerical simulations are carried out for mixed convection flow in a vented cavity with a heat conducting horizontal square cylinder. A two-dimensional solution for steady laminar mixed convection flow is obtained by using the finite element scheme based on the Galerkin method of weighted residuals for different Richardson numbers varying over the range of 0.0 to 5.0. The study goes further to investigate the effect of the inner cylinder position on the fluid flow and heat transfer in the cavity. The location of the inner cylinder is changed horizontally and vertically along the centerline of the cavity. The effects of both Richardson numbers and cylinder locations on the streamlines, isotherms, average rate of heat transfer from the hot wall, the average temperature of the fluid inside the cavity and the temperature at the cylinder center inside the cavity are investigated. The results indicate that the flow field and temperature distributions inside the cavity are strongly dependent on the Richardson numbers and the position of the inner cylinder. Keywords: Finite element method, square cylinder, vented cavity, mixed convection. doi:10.3329/jme.v39i2.1850 Journal of Mechanical Engineering, Vol. ME39, No. 2, Dec. 2008 78-85