Fluid-structure interaction of a thin flexible heater inside a lid-driven cavity

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the characteristics of fluid-structure interaction and heat transfer enhancement from a hot flexible thin plate during mixed convection. The mixed convection condition of the plate heater is assumed by placing it inside a lid driven cavity with top and bottom cavity walls being fixed and insulated while left and right cavity walls maintained at constant low temperature move in downward and upward direction respectively. The Galerkin Finite Element Approach has been used to numerically solve equations describing unsteady flow, thermal and stress fields in the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eularian (ALE) framework. Key parameters include Reynolds number ( Re) and Richardson number ( Ri), and Cauchy number ( Ca) which are varied in the range of 100 ≤  Re ≤ 500, 0.1 ≤  Ri ≤10, and 10−4 ≤  Ca ≤ 10−7 respectively. To investigate the effect of the heater’s geometry, the plate length ( l) has been varied within 0.1 ≤  l ≤ 0.7. The results have been presented in terms of the distribution of streamline and isotherm, heat transfer rate from the flexible heater as well as its deformation. The outcomes reveal that heat transfer enhances with the increase in Reynolds number and Richardson number while it degrades with the extension of the heater. Moreover, thermal frequency obtained by Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) indicates dominant peaks at higher Reynolds number and Richardson number although these become insignificant as the plate becomes rigid.