Cooling strategy by mixed convection of a discrete heater at its optimum position in a square cavity with ventilation ports

Abstract

We studied cooling strategy in a square enclosure with ventilation ports and a discrete heat source at its optimum position. We searched the optimum heater position by maximizing the global conductance at different Rayleigh and Reynolds numbers and considered three different ventilation ports arrangements. We solved the conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy for mixed convection. We found that the heater position is at off center in all cases, its optimum position is insensitive to the variation of Ra and Re; it solely depends on the ventilation ports arrangement. The Nusselt number is dependent on Ri = Ra/ Re 2: at its low values, Nu is a decreasing function of Ri and at its high values, it is an increasing function of it.