Effect of Surface Emissivity on Conjugate Turbulent Natural Convection in an Air-Filled Cavity with a Heat Source

Abstract

The interaction of conjugate turbulent natural convection and surface thermal radiation in an air-filled square enclosure having heat-conducting solid walls of finite thickness and a heat source has been numerically studied. The primary focus was on the influence of surface emissivity on complex heat transfer. The mathematical model has been formulated in dimensionless variables such as stream function, vorticity and temperature using k-ε turbulent model. The effect of surface emissivity on the average total Nusselt number has been defined. The distributions of streamlines and temperature fields, describing characteristics of the analyzed fluid flow and heat transfer have been obtained. The results clearly show an essential effect of surface radiation on unsteady turbulent heat transfer.