Convection in a differentially heated cubic cavity rolling about horizontal axis

Abstract

Many different engineering systems in electronics, power engineering and medicine are under the rotation influence. Therefore, it is very useful to describe from physical point of view the heat transport features in rotating elements. The present research deals with computational investigation of convective energy transport in a differentially heated rotating cubic chamber. The cavity has a left vertical heated wall and the opposite cold border, while the rest borders are thermally insulated. The basic equations have been formulated using the vector potential functions and vorticity vector. The set of control equations has been worked out by using the finite difference procedures. Temperature and velocity fields for different rotation angles have been shown and described in detail. The influence of the cavity rotation rate and the temperature gradient between the walls has been illustrated using the average Nusselt number. The performed analysis has shown that the centrifugal force influence on heat transfer can be neglected for the considered flow modes using the Boussinesq approximation. A growth of the Taylor number results in a suppression of convective heat transfer in the case of low and moderate values of the Rayleigh number, while for high Rayleigh numbers the rotation has an opposite influence on heat transfer with heat transfer enhancement. Comparison between 2D and 3D outcomes illustrates a presence of some differences between these models due to the restrictive effect of cubical surfaces.