Implementation and control of asymmetric thermal environment in two-dimensional rectangular enclosure

Abstract

Laminar natural convection in an enclosure divided by an adiabatic partition on its bottom with two unequal discrete heat sources was investigated numerically. The effect of the partition on the flow structure and heat transfer characteristics in enclosure under asymmetric heating condition was studied. The parameters are the Rayleigh number (1×10⁴≤Ra≤1×10⁶) and the height of partition (0≤h/H≤0.70). The streamlines are produced for various Rayleigh numbers. The results reflected by variations of the average Nusselt number in terms of the height of partition illustrates the convection heat transfer in the enclosure. The role of the partition is to weaken or cut off the heat removal rate from the strong heat source to the weak heat source. It is analyzed that the optimum height of the partition to break the linkage between the strong and weak heat source increases with increasing Rayleigh number.

Keywords

adiabatic partition / natural convection / asymmetric heating condition