Modeling of Natural Turbulent Convection in an Enclosure With Localized Heating

Abstract

This study model natural turbulent convection in a rectangular enclosure with localized heating. The equations used in modeling the flow are the continuity equation, the momentum equation, and the energy equation. These equations are decomposed using the Reynolds decomposition then the decomposed equations are non-dimensionalized and reduced using the Boussinesq assumptions. The model that is considered is a rectangular enclosure with the lower part of the face-wall being heated and the upper part of the face-wall being cooled. The other walls of the enclosure are adiabatic. The nonlinear differential questions obtained by using the k-ε model are solved using the finite difference technique and a computer program called Fluent 6.3.26 is used in the presentation of results in form of vector potentials and isotherms. The results of the study indicate that with the increase in the Rayleigh number there is an increase in the number of vortices and stream functions. With regard to the velocity magnitude, it is found that an increase in the Rayleigh number results in an increase in the turbulence hence implying that there is an increase in the velocity magnitude. In relation to the distribution of isotherms, it is found that the number of contours near the hot part of the enclosure are more and reduce towards the top part of the enclosure.