A Numerical Investigation of Laminar Mixed Convection Flow and Heat Transfer in a Lid Driven Cavity with Two Cylinders

Abstract

Mixed convection flow and heat transfer characteristics in a lid-driven cavity with two isothermally heated circular cylinders inside are studied numerically using a finite element formulation based on the Galerkin method of weighted residuals. The top lid of the cavity is moving rightwards with a constant speed. The two cylinders are maintained at an isothermal hot temperature, while the walls of the cavity are maintained at a cold temperature. Comparisons of streamlines, isotherms and average Nusselt number are presented to show the impact of the Richardson number, non-dimensional radius of the cylinder, and the location of the cylinders on the transport phenomena within the cavity. The results of this investigation show that the presence of the cylinders results in an increase in the average Nusselt number compared with a case with no cylinder. The average Nusselt number increases with an increase in the Richardson number for all non-dimensional radius of the cylinder studied in this work. It is seen that changing the boundary condition on one of the cylinders from isothermal to adiabatic has minimal effect on the average Nusselt number around the walls of the cavity.