Effect of some parameters on natural convection heat transfer in finned enclosures- a case study

Abstract

In this study, we were interested in free convective heat transfer into cavities with finned surface. The hot horizontal bottom wall with attached fins was under variable (sinusoidal) surface temperature while the cold one, on the upper wall side, was kept at constant temperature. The vertical walls were adiabatic. The developed model is related to laminar natural convection airflow in a finned closed cavity. The considered Rayleigh numbers are in the interval 103 to 106 while the Prandtl number is 0.7. The finite volume method is used in solving the resulting equations. The developed numerical code is validated owing to benchmark solutions of De Vahl Davis and results reported by other authors. The results presented in this work are linked to the velocity distribution around the surfaces of the fins, the isothermal lines, the streamlines and local and average Nusselt numbers for various geometrical parameters. Special consideration is given to the effects of Rayleigh number, the variable surface hot temperature, the fins number and their length on the fluid flow patterns and heat transfer in square cavities.