Natural convection in differentially heated and partially divided square cavities with internal heat generation

Abstract

Heat transfer in a differentially heated, partitioned, square cavity containing heat generating fluid has been studied numerically. The vertical walls were isothermal, horizontal walls adiabatic and an isothermal partition at the reference temperature was attached to the bottom wall. Results have been obtained for various geometrical parameters specifying the height, thickness and position of the partition and for Rayleigh numbers characterizing internal and external heating from 10 3 to 10 6. Depending on the ratio of the internal and external Rayleigh numbers, two distinct regimes have been observed and studied with various geometrical parameters. Flow and temperature fields for these cases have been produced; average and local Nusselt numbers at hot and cold walls have been calculated. It is found that the flow field was modified considerably with partial dividers and heat transfer was generally reduced particularly when the ratio of internal and external Rayleigh numbers was from 10 1 to 10 2.