Heat Transfer Enhancement by Acoustic Streaming in an Enclosure

Abstract

Thermal convection in a differentially heated shallow enclosure due to acoustic excitations induced by the vibration of a vertical side wall is investigated numerically. The fully compressible form of the Navier-Stokes equations is considered and an explicit time-marching algorithm is used to track the acoustic waves. Numerical solutions are obtained by employing a highly accurate flux corrected transport algorithm. The frequency of the wall vibration is chosen such that an acoustic standing wave forms in the enclosure. The interaction of the acoustic standing waves and the fluid properties trigger steady secondary streaming flows in the enclosure. Simulations were also carried out for “off-design” vibration frequency where no standing waves were formed. The effects of steady second order acoustic streaming structures are found to be more significant than the main oscillatory flow field on the heat transfer rates. The model developed can be used for the analysis of flow and temperature fields driven by acoustic transducers and in the design of high performance resonators for acoustic compressors.