New higher-order accurate super-compact scheme for three-dimensional natural convection and entropy generation

Abstract

Exploring natural convection in three dimensions through numerical analysis has become essential for gaining a deeper understanding of this process compared to studying it in just two dimensions. This paper presents an enhanced analysis of three-dimensional (3D) natural convection phenomena within an air-filled cubical cavity, with a primary focus on heat transfer characteristics. The distinguishing feature of this research lies in the pioneering application of the newly developed higher-order accurate super-compact finite difference scheme to study 3D natural convection and entropy generation. This numerical method is renowned for its fourth-order spatial accuracy and second-order temporal accuracy. The super-compact scheme employs 19 grid points at the current time level (nth time level) while utilizing just seven grid points from the subsequent time level [(n+1)th time level. The flow is considered to be 3D, time-varying, laminar, and incompressible. First, the newly developed numerical code has undergone validation through quantitative and qualitative comparisons with existing results. Then, we analyze the flow phenomena and heat transfer dynamics within the cavity for various Rayleigh numbers (102≤Ra≤105) with a fixed Prandtl number (Pr = 0.71) by using this scheme. Various parameters such as local Nusselt numbers, averaged Nusselt numbers, local entropy, Bejan number, streamlines, and isotherm dispersion are studied in this work. It is found that as the Rayleigh number (Ra) increases, the Bejan number (Be) decreases, while the total entropy increases. When the Ra is less than or equal to 104, the Be remains above 0.5, indicating that irreversibility primarily arises from heat transfer. However, as we transition to Ra=105, the Be falls below 0.5, signaling that irreversibility is now predominantly driven by viscous effects. To the best of our knowledge, this research marks a pioneering effort by introducing the application of the higher order super-compact (HOSC) scheme for the examination of heat transfer within a 3D cubic cavity, thus endowing our work with a truly novel and pioneering character. It is worth mentioning that, before this study, there has been no precedent in the exploration of heat transfer using the super-compact scheme, thus endowing our work with a truly novel and pioneering character.