Laminar Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in a Lid-Driven Cavity Due to a Thin Fin

Abstract

A finite-volume-based computational study of steady laminar flow and heat transfer (neglecting natural convection) within a lid-driven square cavity due to a single thin fin is presented. The lid moves from left to right and a fixed thin fin can be positioned perpendicular to any of the three stationary walls. Three fins with lengths equal to 5, 10, and 15 percent of the side, positioned at 15 locations were examined for Re=500, 1000, 2000, and Pr=1 (total of 135 cases). Placing a fin on the right wall brings about multi-cell recirculating vortices compared to the case without a fin that exhibits a primary vortex and two small corner cells. A fin slows the flow near the anchoring wall and reduces the temperature gradients, thus degrading heat transfer capacity. A fin positioned near the top right corner of the cavity can reduce heat transfer most effectively in cases with all three different Reynolds numbers and lengths. Regardless of the Reynolds number, placing a fin on the right wall—compared to putting a fin on the left and bottom walls—can always enhance heat transfer on the left wall and at the same time, reduce heat transfer on the bottom, right and top walls. A long fin has the most marked effect on the system’s heat transfer capabilities. Mean Nusselt number was successfully correlated to the Reynolds number, length of the fin and its position.