Abstract
Numerical investigation of free convection heat transfer in a differentially heated trapezoidal cavity filled with non-Newtonian Power-law fluid has been performed in this study. The left inclined surface is uniformly heated whereas the right inclined surface is maintained as uniformly cooled. The top and bottom surfaces are kept adiabatic with initially quiescent fluid inside the enclosure. Finite-volume-based commercial software FLUENT 14.5 is used to solve the governing equations. Dependency of various flow parameters of fluid flow and heat transfer is analyzed including Rayleigh number (Ra) ranging from 105 to 107, Prandtl number (Pr) from 100 to 10,000, and power-law index ( n) from 0.6 to 1.4. Outcomes have been reported in terms of isotherms, streamlines, and local Nusselt number for various Ra, Pr, n, and inclined angles. Grid sensitivity analysis is performed and numerically obtained results have been compared with those results available in the literature and were in good agreement.
Highlights
Rectangular enclosures with differentially heated vertical sidewalls are of great importance to many fields of studies in heat transfer phenomena such as natural convection
Several methodologies including analytical [7], numerical [8], and experimental [9] approaches have been employed in most of these studies, and the results indicated that the free convection features are considerably affected by the rheological properties of the fluid
The results correspond to the influence of important parameters, namely, inclination angle (0 ≤ φ ≤ 60), Power-law index (0.6 ≤ n ≤ 1.4), Rayleigh number (104 ≤ Ra ≤ 106), and Prandtl number (100 ≤ Pr ≤ 10,000), on heat transfer and fluid flow
Summary
Rectangular enclosures with differentially heated vertical sidewalls are of great importance to many fields of studies in heat transfer phenomena such as natural convection. It is one of the most widely investigated configurations because of its prime importance as a benchmark geometry to study convection effects and compare numerical techniques. Natural convection laminar flow of non-Newtonian Power-law fluids performs an important role in various engineering applications which are related to pseudoplastic fluids. The study of fluid flow and heat transfer related to Power-law non-Newtonian fluids has attracted many researchers in the past half-century. A large number of literatures are created due to their wide relevance to pseudoplastic fluids like chemicals, foods, polymers, molten plastics, and petroleum production and various natural phenomena
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
