The effect of surface thermal radiation on entropy generation in an open cavity with natural convection

Abstract

In this work, a numerical study on entropy generation in a square open cavity with natural convection and surface thermal radiation is presented. The overall continuity, momentum, and energy equations for the gas phase in the open cavity were solved numerically by means of the finite-volume method. Temperature-dependent fluid properties were considered. During the calculations, the values of the Rayleigh number (Ra) were set in the range of 104–106. The temperature difference between the hot wall and the bulk fluid (ΔT) was varied between 50 and 400K, and was represented by a dimensionless temperature difference (φ) for the purpose of generalization of the present study. The results of this investigation indicate that surface thermal radiation increases the overall entropy generation rate between 33.52% and 560.87%, and thus cannot be neglected in the analysis of this type of system.