Energy conservative dissipative particle dynamics simulation of natural convection in eccentric annulus

Abstract

In this paper, an efficient numerical approach, the dissipative particle dynamics with energy conservation (eDPD), is used to simulate natural convection in eccentric annulus over a wide range of Rayleigh numbers. A numerical strategy is presented for dealing with irregular geometries in DPD system. The eDPD results are compared to the finite volume solutions and the experimental data, and it is found that the temperature and flow fields for the natural convection in complex geometries are correctly predicted using eDPD. The effect of eccentricity on heat transfer at various locations is examined at Ra=104, and the streamlines and temperature distributions as well as Nusselt number are obtained. The results show that the average Nusselt number increases when the inner cylinder moves downward regardless of the radial position.