Heat transfer comparison between a vertical rectangular cavity and an isosceles right-angled triangular cavity of equal cross-sectional area

Abstract

This paper addresses the heat transfer performance of natural convection flows in three different, (but related) cavities in the form of: a square, isosceles right-angled triangle, and vertical rectangle with aspect ratio 2:1. The isosceles right-angled triangular cavity is derived from a square cavity when cut in half diagonally, whereas the vertical rectangular cavity is derived from a square cavity when cut in half vertically. In the three cavities, the left vertical wall is the common wall heated. The buoyant air flow is characterized by height-based Rayleigh numbers ranging from a conduction-dominant to up to 106 for the laminar natural convection regime. Employing the finite volume method, the velocity and temperature fields as well as the mean convective coefficients evaluated at the common heated vertical wall are numerically determined for the isosceles right-angled triangular cavity. For this cavity, flow streamlines and temperature contours are presented in graphical form and some numerical results are validated against published experimental measurements. A one-to-one comparison for the heat transfer performance of the three interconnected cavities is reported in tabulated form.