Convection of a viscous incompressible gas in rectangular regions with inlet and outlet channels

Abstract

A study is made of two-dimensional problems of thermal convection of a viscous incompressible gas in rectangular regions that have gas inlet and outlet channels in the presence of a temperature difference between the bottom and the top (the bottom is heated). In contrast to the well-studied case of natural convection, when no-slip conditions are specified on all boundaries of the region and motion in the region occurs only through the temperature difference [1–4], the heat transfer in the investigated flows is complicated by the additional influence of the forced convection of the gas due to the motion of gas through the inlet and outlet channels. Flows of such type simulate well the processes that take place in many heat transfer devices and in ventilated and air-conditioned industrial premises. Two formulations of the problem are considered. In the first, the gas flow through the inlet and outlet channels is assumed given, and the solution of the problem is determined by the dimensionless Prandtl, Grashof, and Reynolds numbers. In the second case, this flow rate is not given but determined during the solution of the problem. The motion in the region arises from the difference between the temperatures of the bottom and the top of the region, and the motion, in its turn, causes a flow of gas through the inlet and outlet channels. As in the case of natural convection, the solution of the problem in this case is determined by only two dimensionless numbers — the Grashof and Prandtl numbers. By numerical solution of the boundary-value problems for the equations of heat transfer a study is made of the influence of the characteristic dimensionless numbers on the hydrodynamic and temperature fields and the heat fluxes through the boundaries of the region. The solutions of the problems in the two formulations are compared for different positions of the outlet channels.