The role of a partition on free convection in a trapezoidal shaped building

Abstract

AbstractHeat transfer and fluid flow in a partitioned trapezoidal‐shaped building are carried out. The finite‐volume computational procedure is adopted for numerical simulations. The inclined wall of the building is uniformly heated; the vertical wall is the cold wall, whereas the top and bottom walls are adiabatic. The ranges of parameters studied are the Rayleigh number, Ra (103 ≤ Ra ≤ 106), the location of the partition, d (0.3L ≤ d ≤ 0.9L), and the partition height, h (0.3H ≤ h ≤ 0.9H). The results are presented for different locations and height of the partition in an enclosure in terms of temperature patterns, streamline curves, and the local and overall Nusselt numbers. It is noticed that when the height of the partition increases beyond 0.3H irrespective of the position of the partition, the heat transfer decreases drastically for all Rayleigh numbers. The comfort zones are located in the cavity for different partition heights. Correlations are developed for Nusselt numbers in terms of the Rayleigh number and height of the partition.