Numerical Analysis of Plume Structures of Fluids on a Horizontal Heated Plate

Abstract

Numerical investigations have been carried out to predict the near-wall dynamics in indirect natural convection for air (Pr = 0.7) and water (Pr = 5.2). Near-wall flow structures appear to be line plumes. Three-dimensional laminar, steady-state model was used to model the problem. Density was formulated using the Boussinesq approximation. Flux scaling, plume spacing and plume lengths obtained numerically are found to have the same trend with the results available in the literature. Plume length and Nusselt number, Nu exhibits an increasing trend with an increase in Rayleigh number, RaH for both Pr fluids. The plume spacing is found to have an inverse relationship with RaH. The cube root of Rayleigh number based on plume spacing, Raλ1/3 is found to have a slight dependence on the dimensionless plume spacing, λ/H. Nu scales as Nu∼CRaHn, n = 0.26 for air and n = 0.3 for water. Heat transfer is thus found to be dominated by near-wall phenomenon. Nu shows a nonlinear relationship with LpH/A and is found to be an accurate representation of heat transfer.