Effect of Inlet and Outlet Locations on Transverse Mixed Convection Inside a Vented Enclosure

Abstract

Transverse mixed convection is studied numerically in a vented enclosure with constant heat flux from uniformly heated bottom wall. An external airflow enters the enclosure through an opening in one vertical wall and exits from another opening in the opposite wall. The two-dimensional mathematical model includes the system of four partial differential equations of continuity, linear momentum and energy, solved by the finite element method. Flow fields are investigated by numerical simulations for air flowing with a Reynolds number in the range 50 ≤ Re ≤ 1000, for Richardson numbers: 0 ≤ Ri ≤ 10. Four different locations of inlet and outlets are introduced to analyze the effect of heat transfer in terms of velocity and temperature fields within the enclosure. The computational results show that the location of inlet and outlets alters significantly the temperature distribution in the flow fields and the heat transfer across the heated wall of the cavities. Empirical correlation is developed for relations using Nusselt number, Reynolds number and Richardson number, based on the enclosure height.   Keywords: Mixed convection, finite element method, vented enclosure, Richardson number.Journal of Mechanical Engineering Vol.36 Dec. 2006 pp.27-37DOI = 10.3329/jme.v36i0.808