Numerical Simulation of Natural Convection in a Parallelogrammic Enclosure Containing Volumetric Heat Source with Non‐uniformly Heated Left Sidewall

Abstract

The influence of the external Rayleigh number, inclination angle, and internal Rayleigh number on natural convection within an air‐filled parallelogrammic enclosure containing a volumetric source has been investigated numerically. The left sidewall of the enclosure is subjected to a non‐uniformly hot temperature and the right sidewall experiences a uniform cold temperature while the remaining top and bottom walls are kept adiabatic. The physical problems are represented mathematically by various sets of governing equations along with the corresponding boundary conditions. Buoyancy forces are taken into account during the analysis of the present investigation. By using the finite volume method, the dimensionless governing equations are discretized numerically based on a non‐uniform collocated grid system. Results are obtained for a wide range of external Rayleigh numbers varying from 103 to 106 with internal Rayleigh numbers varying from (0) to (108) while the left sidewall from vertical is varied as 0, 30, –30, 60, and −60°, respectively. In the present study, the obtained results are presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms, and average Nusselt number along the hot and cold sidewalls. Two pairs of rotating vortices are observed due to the non‐uniform heating process while the shape of this rotating vortices is sensitive to the inclination angle. Furthermore, the flow field circulation and the average Nusselt number increase remarkably with the increase in the external Rayleigh number. The results of the present work are compared with other published results and give excellent agreement. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 43(6): 542–560, 2014; Published online 11 November 2013 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj). DOI 10.1002/htj.21096