International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Review

Studies on natural convection within enclosures of various (non-square)

shapes – A review
Debayan Das a, Monisha Roy b, Tanmay Basak a,⇑
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India
b
Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Natural convection in an enclosure (internal convection) is an important problem due to its significant
Received 20 January 2016 practical applications. In energy related applications, natural convection plays a dominant role in trans-
Received in revised form 5 August 2016 port of energy for the proper design of enclosures in order to achieve higher heat transfer rates. This
Accepted 12 August 2016
review summarizes the studies on natural convection heat transfer in triangular, trapezoidal, parallelo-
Available online xxxx
grammic enclosures and enclosures with curved and wavy walls filled with fluid or porous media. In
addition, this review also summarizes the natural convection studies in the nanofluid filled enclosures.
Keywords:
Studies have been performed for the enclosures subjected to different thermal boundary conditions. A
Natural convection
Fluid or porous media
number of the studies demonstrated that the variation of the aspect ratio and base angle of the triangular
Triangular and rhombic/parallelogrammic enclosures had a wide influence on the flow distribution pattern. In the
Trapezoidal trapezoidal enclosure, the aspect ratio of the cavity as well as the presence of the baffles along the walls
Parallelogrammic played a significant role in the temperature and flow distribution. The flow patterns within the complex
Curved walls enclosures were found to be largely dependent on the amplitude-wavelength ratio and number of undu-
lations of the wavy walls. In addition, the researchers have also studied the effect of the various param-
eters such as the Rayleigh numbers, Prandtl numbers, Darcy numbers, Darcy–Rayleigh number,
irreversibility distribution ratios, volume fraction of the nanoparticles, etc. Overall, the current review
paper presents an useful insight into the potential strategies for enhancing the convection heat transfer
performance.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 02
1.1. Natural convection: internal and external flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 02
1.2. Natural convection: internal flows in various geometries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 02
2. Modelling and simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04
2.1. Governing equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04
2.1.1. Fluid media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04
2.1.2. Porous media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 05
2.1.3. Nanofluids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06
2.2. Boundary conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07
2.3. Heat transfer rates: Nusselt numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07
2.4. Heat flow visualization: heatlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07
2.5. Entropy generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08
2.5.1. Fluid media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08
2.5.2. Porous media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08
2.5.3. Nanofluids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09

⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: debayan8221@gmail.com (D. Das), monisha.roy97@gmail.com (M. Roy), tanmay@iitm.ac.in (T. Basak).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
0017-9310/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: D. Das et al., Studies on natural convection within enclosures of various (non-square) shapes – A review, Int. J. Heat Mass
Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
2 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

2.6. Entropy generation number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09

2.7. Numerical simulations and post processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09
3. Triangular enclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09
3.1. Fluid media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09
3.2. Porous media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3. Nanofluid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4. Trapezoidal enclosures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.1. Fluid media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.2. Porous media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.3. Nanofluids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5. Parallelogrammic and rhombic enclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.1. Fluid media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.2. Porous media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
6. Complex geometries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.1. Fluid media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.2. Porous media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.3. Nanofluids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7.1. Triangular enclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.2. Trapezoidal enclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.3. Rhombic/parallelogrammic enclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.4. Complex enclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

1. Introduction
1.1. Natural convection: internal and external flows
Natural convection is one of the major modes of heat transfer.
Based on the flow pattern and geometry, natural convection can
be classified as external or internal. During the internal flow
arrangement, the flowing fluid is surrounded by the solid bound-
aries, whereas a solid object is surrounded or covered by the flow-
ing fluid during the external flow arrangement. The flow through
pipes and ducts are the primary examples of the internal flows.
Flows over the flat plate, cylinders and spheres are examples of
the external flows. However, natural convective flows are complex
because of the essential coupling of the hydrodynamic and thermal
flow fields. In particular, the internal flow problems are more com-
plex than the external flow situations. The external flow problems
can be modeled using the classical boundary layer theory by
assuming that the region outside the boundary layer is unaffected
by the solid boundary [1]. In contrast, for the internal convection,
the interactions between the boundary layer and core constitute
a major complexity in the problem.
Based on the applied thermal boundary conditions, the internal
convective systems can be classified into two types: (a) enclosures
heated from side walls (temperature gradient is orthogonal to the
direction of gravity) and (b) enclosures heated from bottom wall
(temperature gradient is parallel to the direction of gravity) [1].
Natural convection in a differentially heated enclosure is an exam-
ple of type-(a) and Rayleigh–Benard convection between two infi-
nite horizontal plates is an example of type-(b). In addition, other
thermal boundary conditions may involve the combination of dif-
ferential and Rayleigh–Benard heating at various segments of walls
etc. Various types of heating patterns during the internal convec-
tion involve engineering applications such as electronic equipment
cooling [2], lubrication systems [3], heat exchangers [4], solar
energy collectors [5], electric ovens [6], solar desalination systems
[7], melting and solidification processes [8,9], etc.
1.2. Natural convection: internal flows in various geometries
Natural convection in rectangular and square enclosures have
been extensively studied in the literature and these studies primar-
ily focused on the effect of boundary conditions, aspect ratios and
medium of heat transfer on natural convection. A number of such
studies are summarized by Ostrach [10,11], Hoogendoorn [12] and
Fusegi and Hyun [13]. The effect of aspect ratios on the flow pat-
tern and energy transport within rectangular enclosures with the
isothermally hot side wall and cooled ceiling using the streamfunc
tion–vorticity formulation has been reported by Aydin et al. [14].
Later, Sarris et al. [15] investigated numerically natural convection
in a rectangular enclosure with a sinusoidal temperature profile on
the upper wall and adiabatic conditions on the bottom and side
walls. They reported that the fluid circulation intensity and the
thermal penetration depth increases with the aspect ratio. Basak
et al. [16] studied the effect of thermal boundary conditions on
natural convection flows within a square cavity using the penalty
finite element method. They reported that the overall heat transfer
rates are lower for the non-uniform heating case compared to that
for the uniform heating case. Recently, Kaluri and Basak [17] stud-
ied the effect of the distributed heating on natural convection in a
square cavity via the heatline approach. Their study shows that the
heat distribution and thermal mixing in a cavity is greatly
enhanced in the distributed heating case compared to the isother-
mal hot bottom wall case.
A number of studies reported the wide variety of applications of
convection within the porous enclosures, which include thermal
insulation [18], grain storage and drying [19], thermal energy stor-
age systems [20], geological storage of CO2 [21] etc. Studies on nat-
ural convection in square or rectangular type enclosures filled with
the porous medium can be found in the earlier works [22–26]. Tre-
visan and Bejan [22] reported an analytical and numerical study of
natural convection heat and mass transfer through a vertical slot
filled with the porous medium subjected to the uniform heat flux.
They developed the overall heat and mass transfer correlations for
the porous media with Le = 1 and the buoyancy effect governed by
both the temperature and concentration variations. Later, Lage and
Bejan [23] studied the effect of the pulsating heat input on natural
convection in a porous square enclosure. They conducted the
numerical experiments for Prandtl numbers varying within
0.01–7, heat flux Rayleigh number (heat flux Rayleigh number is
proportional to Rayleigh number based on the average instanta-
neous side-to-side temperature difference) within 103
109, and
non-dimensional frequency range 0–0.3. Song and Viskanta [24]

Please cite this article in press as: D. Das et al., Studies on natural convection within enclosures of various (non-square) shapes – A review, Int. J. Heat Mass
Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 3

conducted the experimental and theoretical study of natural con- with the inclined, curved and wavy side walls during the last
vection flow and heat transfer within a rectangular enclosure par- two decades. A few of earlier studies on natural convection in var-
tially filled with an anisotropic porous medium. They used volume- ious non-rectangular enclosures are mentioned below. Philip [27]
averaged conservation equations to model the effect of the aniso- first developed the exact solutions for the small Rayleigh number
tropic flow characteristics of the porous medium on the flow and during the free convection in various enclosures with various
heat transfer. Kim et al. [25] studied natural convection in a porous shapes (rectangular, elliptical and triangular enclosures) due to
square enclosure using the Brinkman-extended Darcy model and the uniform temperature gradient normal to the gravitational field.
reported that in the conduction dominant regime, the porous The effect of the enclosure aspect ratio and orientation on the flow
region acts as a heat-generating solid block. The results indicate fields has been studied and it was concluded that at the low Ray-
that there exists an asymptotic convection regime where the flow leigh number, convective flows are independent of the cavity ori-
is nearly independent of the permeability and conductivity of the entation. Lee [28] presented the numerical and experimental
porous medium. Hossain and Wilson [26] reported the unsteady studies of the fluid motion and heat transfer in a differentially
laminar natural convection flow in a fluid-saturated porous rectan- heated non-rectangular enclosure. The effect of the Rayleigh num-
gular enclosure with the hot bottom wall, non-isothermal left wall ber, aspect ratios and inclination of the enclosure on the flow and
and cold top and right walls. Their study shows that, the volumet- thermal characteristics have been reported in their study. One of
ric flow rate of the fluid and the heat transfer rate at the walls are the interesting conclusions was that the maximum value of the
reduced with the increase of the porosity of the medium. average Nusselt number occurs at an inclination angle of 180
A number of studies on natural convection heat transfer in and minimum value at 270 . Hyun and Choi [29] studied the tran-
enclosures with complex shapes besides regular geometries such sient natural convective heat transfer in a parallelogram-shaped
as square or rectangle, were reported in the literature due to their enclosure at large Rayleigh numbers using the finite-difference
applications in various engineering problems [27–29]. The cou- method. They reported the possibility of utilizing the
pling between the hydrodynamic and thermal fields in a complex parallelogram-shaped enclosure as a transient thermal diode, by
geometry via the buoyancy force makes the mathematical model means of controlling the tilt angle of the partition walls of the
rather challenging. Thus, researchers have carried out significant enclosure. Iyican et al. [30] studied natural convective flow and
studies on natural convection in the non-rectangular enclosures heat transfer within a trapezoidal enclosure with the parallel

(a) (b)
Hot or
Cold or Adiabatic
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iab old
Hot or Cold
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(c) (d)
Cold or Adiabatic Cold or Adiabatic Cold or Adiabatic
or Adiabatic

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or Adiabatic

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Hot or Cold al
or Adiabatic erm Cold Adiabatic
Th de Adiabatic
i o
Cold

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Cold

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Adiabatic

Adiabatic Adiabatic

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the physical geometries with various thermal boundary conditions, (a) triangular enclosures, (b) trapezoidal enclosures, (c) parallelogramic and
rhombic enclosures, and (d) complex enclosures.

Please cite this article in press as: D. Das et al., Studies on natural convection within enclosures of various (non-square) shapes – A review, Int. J. Heat Mass
Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
4 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

cylindrical top and bottom walls at different temperatures and @u @ v

þ ¼ 0; ð1aÞ
plane adiabatic side walls. Karyakin [31] reported two dimensional @x @y
!
laminar natural convection in isosceles trapezoidal cavities. Varol @u @u @p @2u @2u
et al. [32] studied natural convection within trapezoidal enclosures qu þ qv ¼
þ l þ ; ð1bÞ
@x @y @x @x2 @y2
partially cooled from the inclined wall. !
A comprehensive review on natural convection in triangular @v @v @p @2v @2v
qu þ qv ¼
þ l þ þ gbqðT h
T c Þ; ð1cÞ
enclosures is reported by Kamiyo et al. [33]. Their review focused @x @y @y @x2 @y2
on the whole range of the buoyancy-induced flow-regimes in trian-    
@ðuTÞ @ðv TÞ @ @T @ @T
gular enclosures. In addition, the effects of the pitch angle, Rayleigh qcp þ qc p ¼ k þ k : ð1dÞ
number and various thermal boundary conditions on the fluid and @x @y @x @x @y @y
heat flow fields were also examined in detail. Later, Saha and Khan Here x and y are the distances measured along the horizontal
[34] reviewed natural convection heat transfer through the attic- and vertical directions, respectively; u and v are the velocity com-
shaped space. They also reported the studies on attics subjected ponents in the x and y directions, respectively; T denotes the tem-
to the localized heating and attics filled with the porous media. perature; g denotes the acceleration due to gravity; m and a are the
The review report of research and future aspects on various irreg- kinematic viscosity and thermal diffusivity, respectively; p is the
ular shape cavities will be important for analyzing various applica- pressure and q is the density; T h and T c are the temperatures at
tions such as energy intensive processes, material processing etc hot left wall and cold right wall, respectively.
and these studies are yet to appear in literature. Thus, the aim of The dimensionless variables or numbers have been used for
this review is to present a summery of past and recent studies defining the governing equations for the steady two dimensional
on natural convection in triangular, trapezoidal, parallelogramic/ natural convection flow. The dimensionless variables are enlisted
rhombic and enclosures with the curved and wavy walls filled with as follows:
the fluid and porous media. This review also addresses the flow
x y uL vL T
Tc
and heat transfer details on natural convective systems with a X¼ ; Y¼ ; U¼ ; V¼ ; h¼ ;
detailed discussion about the effects of the enclosure orientation L L a a Th
Tc
and the thermal boundary conditions along with the efficiency of
heat transfer via heatlines and entropy generation as a first pL2 m gbðT h
T c ÞL3 Pr
P¼ ; Pr ¼ ; Ra ¼ : ð2Þ
attempt. Natural convection within enclosures of various shapes qa2 a m2
and different thermal boundary conditions have wide ranges of Here L is the height or length of the base of the cavity; X and Y
applications in cooling processes [35], solar energy [36,37], fuel are the dimensionless coordinates varying along the horizontal and
cells [38], heat exchangers [39], melting process [40], food technol- vertical directions, respectively; U and V are the dimensionless
ogy [41]. The present review may be helpful for the future velocity components in the X and Y directions, respectively; h is
researchers in choosing the realistic enclosures and suitable pro- the dimensionless temperature; P is the dimensionless pressure;
cess parameters for a convective system. Ra and Pr are the Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers, respectively.
Using the above relations (Eq. (2)), the steady state governing
equations for pressure velocity formulation or streamfunction–vor
2. Modelling and simulations
ticity formulation or vorticity-velocity formulation are as follows:

Fig. 1(a–d) represent the triangular, trapezoidal, parallelogram-

mic, rhombic and curved wall enclosures with possible thermal 2.1.1.1. Pressure velocity formulation [16].
boundary conditions based on various case studies in the litera- @U @V
ture. The mathematical model is developed for the natural convec- þ ¼ 0; ð3aÞ
@X @Y !
tive systems based on the following assumptions.
@U @U @P @2U @2U
U þV ¼
þ Pr þ ; ð3bÞ
@X @Y @X @X 2 @Y 2
 Fluid is assumed to be incompressible and Newtonian. !
 The no-slip boundary condition is assumed at the solid @V @V @P @2V @2V
boundaries. U þV ¼
þ Pr þ þ Ra Pr h; ð3cÞ
@X @Y @Y @X 2 @Y 2
 The fluid flow is assumed to be laminar and two dimensional.
 The thermo-physical properties of the fluid except the density @h @h @ 2 h @ 2 h
U þV ¼ þ : ð3dÞ
variation in the buoyancy term are considered to be constant. @X @Y @X 2 @Y 2
The Boussinesq approximation is invoked to relate the variation
of density with temperature in the body force term. 2.1.1.2. Streamfunction–vorticity formulation [14,15]. A streamline is
 The temperature of the fluid phase is equal to the temperature a line that is tangential to the instantaneous velocity vector of the
of the solid phase in the case of the porous bed and the local flow. The streamfunction (w) can be used to plot the streamlines,
thermal equilibrium (LTE) is applicable. which represent the trajectories of particles in a steady flow. The
 Radiation heat transfer is negligible. positive sign of w denotes the anticlockwise circulation and nega-
 In the case of convection in nanofluids, the nanoparticles have a tive sign represents the clockwise circulation. The streamfunction
uniform size and shape. The nanoparticles are assumed to be is defined in the following manner based on the continuity
well dispersed within the base fluid. The base fluid and equation
nanoparticles are in thermal equilibrium and have the same
flow velocity. @w @w
U¼ and V ¼
; ð4Þ
@Y @X
2.1. Governing equations The combination of the above relationships yields a following
single equation
2.1.1. Fluid media
@2w @2w @U @V
Conservations of mass, momentum and energy balance equa- þ ¼
: ð5Þ
tions for the incompressible fluid in the steady state are as follows @X 2
@Y 2 @Y @X

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 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 5

The no-slip condition (w ¼ 0) is valid at all the boundaries as Using the following dimensionless variables,
there is no cross flow. The steady state streamfunction–vorticity
x y @w0 @w0 T
Tc
formulation for the fluid velocities is given as: X¼ ; Y¼ ; uD ¼ ; vD ¼
; h¼ ;
! L L @y @x Th
Tc
@w @ X @w @ X @2X @2X @h

¼ Pr þ
Ra Pr ; ð6aÞ
@Y @X @X @Y @X 2 @Y 2 @X w0 m gbðT h
T c ÞL3 Pr K
w¼ ; Pr ¼ ; Ra ¼ ; Da ¼ 2 ; ð13Þ
@w @h @w @h @ h @ h 2 2 aeff aeff m2 L

¼ þ ; ð6bÞ
@Y @X @X @Y @X 2 @Y 2 the steady state dimensionless forms of mass, momentum and
energy balance equations (Eqs. (10) and (11)) [48] are as follows:
where vorticity is denoted by X and defined as
@U D @V D
@2w @2w þ ¼ 0; ð14aÞ
X¼

: ð7Þ @X @Y
2 2
@X @Y 2
@ w @ w2
@h
þ ¼
RaDa ; ð14bÞ
@X 2 @Y 2 @X
2.1.1.3. Vorticity-velocity formulation [4,42]. The non-dimensional @w @h @w @h @ h @ 2 h
2

¼ þ ; ð14cÞ
vorticity-velocity formulation of the governing equations are as @Y @X @X @Y @X 2 @Y 2
follows:

@X @ X @ 2 X @ 2 X Ra @ X 2.1.2.2. Darcy extended Forchheimer model. The Darcy law is valid

U þV ¼ þ þ ; ð8aÞ
@X @Y @X 2 @Y 2 Pr @X for the viscous flow involving the less intense flow and less Rey-
! nold’s number. The measured relationship between the pressure
@X @X 1 @2h @2h
U þV ¼ þ ; ð8bÞ gradient and volume averaged velocity may be correlated by
@X @Y Pr @X 2 @Y 2
Forchheimer’s modification of Darcy’s model [49]
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
@p lf cF q  
¼
uD
pffiffiffiffi0  ðuD þ v D ÞuD ;
2 
2.1.2. Porous media
2
ð15aÞ
@x K K
The development of various models on natural convection in qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
@p lf cF q  
porous media is well illustrated by Nield and Bejan [43] and Ing- ¼
v D
pffiffiffiffi0 
 ðuD þ v D Þv D
gbq0 ðT
T 0 Þ:
2 2 
ð15bÞ
@y K K
ham and Pop [44]. Various forms of the momentum equations for
porous media are as follows: Here cF is the dimensionless inertia parameter which varies
with the nature of the porous medium. Based on the Ergun model
2.1.2.1. Darcy model. The continuity equation for porous media can [50], cF ¼ 1:75 , where  denotes the porosity. In Eqs. (15a) and
ð150 Þ
3 1=2
be written as follows [45]:
(15b), the first term of RHS is linear drag term introduced by Darcy
@uD @ v D and the second term is the non-linear drag term (Forchheimer
þ ¼ 0: ð9Þ
@x @y term).

Here, uD and v D are the seepage velocities along the x and y 2.1.2.3. Brinkman model. Brinkman [51] modified the Darcy flow
directions, respectively, p denotes the intrinsic fluid pressure, lf model involving the transition from the Darcy flow to the highly
denotes the viscosity of the fluid, K represents the permeability viscous flow (without porous matrix) in the limit of extremely high
of the medium, q is the density of the medium and g represents permeability.
acceleration due to the gravity. Assuming the Boussinesq approxi- lf
@p
mation, q ¼ q0 ½1
bðT
T 0 Þ in the body force term, the momen- ¼
uD þ leff r2 uD ; ð16aÞ
@x K
tum equation for the two dimensional fluid flow through an lf
@p
isotropic porous medium based on the Darcy model [46,47] is as ¼
v D þ leff r2 v D ; ð16bÞ
@y K
follows:
where leff represents the effective viscosity of the fluid. Based on
@uD @ v D Kgbq0 @T

¼ : ð10Þ the Brinkman model, the momentum and energy balance equations
@y @x lf @x [52,53] in terms of the intrinsic velocities (uI and v I ) are as follows:
  !
Here b is the coefficient of volumetric thermal expansion and q0 @uI @uI @p lf @ 2 uI @ 2 uI
is the density of the fluid at some standard temperature T 0 . Also, q0 uI þ vI ¼

uI þ lf þ 2 ; ð17aÞ
@x @y @x K @x2 @y
the energy balance equation for the isotropic porous media is as   !
@v @v @p l @2v I @2v I
follows: q0 uI I þ v I I ¼

f v I þ lf þ
! @x @y @y K @x2 @y2
@T @T @2T @2T
uD þ vD ¼ aeff þ : ð11Þ þ q0 gbðT
T 0 Þ; ð17bÞ
@x @y @x2 @y2    
@ðu TÞ @ðv TÞ @ @T @ @T
qcp I þ qcp I ¼ keff þ keff : ð17cÞ
@x @y @x @x @y @y
Here aeff is the effective thermal diffusivity. The
streamfunction-velocity formulation of Eqs. (10) and (11) are Note that, the intrinsic and Darcy velocities are related by
2 0 2 0 uD ¼ uI and v D ¼ v I and keff is the effective thermal conductivity
@ w @ w Kgbq0 @T
þ 2 ¼ ; ð12aÞ of the fluid saturated porous media. Using the dimensionless
@x2 @y lf @x
! variables,
@w0 @T @w0 @T @2T @2T x y uI L vIL

¼ aeff þ : ð12bÞ X¼ ; Y¼ ; UI ¼ ; VI ¼ ;
@y @x @x @y @x2 @y2 L L aeff aeff

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6 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

T
Tc pL2 keff lf @U I @V I
h¼ ; P¼ ; aeff ¼ ; Prm ¼ ; þ ¼ 0; ð23aÞ
Th
Tc q0 a2eff q0 cp f
q0 aeff @X @Y
!
@U I @U I @P Pr m @2 UI @2 UI
UI þ VI ¼

U I þ Prm þ
K gbðT h
T c ÞL q 3 2
0 Pr
@X @Y @X Dam @X 2 @Y 2
Dam ¼ ; Ram ¼ ; ð18Þ
L2 l2f qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2 2
1:75 U I U I þ V I
the dimensionless forms of mass, momentum and energy equations
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ; ð23bÞ
150 Dam
(Eqs. (17a)–(17c)) in terms of the non-dimensional intrinsic veloci- !
ties are as follows [54]: @V I @V I @P Prm @2V I @2V I
UI þ VI ¼

V I þ Pr m þ
@X @Y @Y Dam @X 2 @Y 2
@U I @V I qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
þ ¼ 0; ð19aÞ
@X @Y ! 1:75 V I U I þ V I
2 2

@U I @U I @P Pr m @2 UI @2 UI
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi þ Ram Pr m h; ð23cÞ

UI þ VI ¼

U I þ Pr m þ ; ð19bÞ 150 Dam
@X @Y @X Dam @X 2 @Y 2
! @h @h @ 2 h @ 2 h
UI þ VI ¼ þ : ð23dÞ
@V I @V I @P Pr m @2V I @2V I @X @Y @X 2 @Y 2
UI þ VI ¼

V I þ Prm þ
@X @Y @Y Dam @X 2 @Y 2
þ Ram Prm h; ð19cÞ 2.1.3. Nanofluids
@h @h @ h @ h 2 2 Nanofluids are defined as the liquid dispersions of submicron
UI þ VI ¼ þ : ð19dÞ solid particles or nanoparticles in pure fluids. The term ‘nanofluid’
@X @Y @X 2 @Y 2
was first proposed by Choi [58]. Nanofluid has gained significant
Note that, U I and V I are the dimensionless intrinsic velocity attention in the recent years due to the easy production methods
components in the X and Y directions, respectively; Pr m ; Ram and and inexpensive price. Also, the thermal conductivity of nanofluids
Dam are the modified Prandtl number, modified Rayleigh number relative to the base fluids is high. Thus, nanofluids can be applied in
and modified Darcy number, respectively. many energy related systems such as the cooling of electronics,
cooling and heating in buildings, medical applications [59], radia-
2.1.2.4. Generalized model. The generalized form of the momentum tors [60], solar collectors [61].
balance equations based on the Brinkman-Forchheimer extended Because of the nanoparticles in fluid, the additional physical
Darcy model [55] are as follows: parameters such as the effective thermal conductivity (keff ), effec-
! tive viscosity (leff ), solid volume fraction (/), etc are incorporated
 
q0 @uD @uD @p lf lf @ 2 u D @ 2 u D in the governing equations. The modified governing equations
u þ v ¼

u þ þ
2 D @x D
@y @x K
D
 @x2 @y2 based on the effective properties are as follows [62–66]:
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1:75q0
ffi uD u2D þ v 2D ; @u @ v

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð20aÞ þ ¼ 0; ð24aÞ
150K 3 !
@x @y
    !
q0 @v D @v D @p lf lf @ 2 v D @ 2 v D @u @u @p @2u @2u
uD þ vD ¼

vD þ þ qnf u þ v ¼
þ lnf þ ; ð24bÞ
 2 @x @y @y K  @x2 @y2 @x @y @x @x2 @y2
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi !
1:75q0  
ffi v D u2D þ v 2D þ q0 gðT
T 0 Þ:

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð20bÞ @v @v @p @2v @2v
150K 3 qnf u þ v ¼
þ lnf þ
@x @y @y @x2 @y2
Using the dimensionless variables,
þ g½ð1
/ÞðqbÞbf þ /ðqbÞs ðT
T c Þ; ð24cÞ
x y uD L v DL T
Tc !
X¼ ; Y¼ ; UD ¼ ; VD ¼ ; h¼ ; @T @T @2T @2T
L L aeff aeff Th
Tc u þv ¼ anf þ ; ð24dÞ
@x @y @x2 @y2
pL2 m gbðT h
T c ÞL3 Pr K
P¼ ; Pr ¼ ; Ra ¼ ; Da ¼ 2 ; ð21Þ Here,
q0 a2eff aeff m2 L
qnf ¼ ð1
/Þqbf þ /qs ; ðqcp Þnf ¼ ð1
/Þðqcp Þbf þ /ðqcp Þs ;
the nondimensional forms of momentum Eqs. (20a) and (20b) [56]
in terms of the Darcy velocities are as follows:
  ! keff
1 @U D @U D @P Pr Pr @ 2 U D @ 2 U D ðqbÞnf ¼ ð1
/ÞðqbÞbf þ /ðqbÞs ; anf ¼ ;
U þ VD ¼

UD þ þ ðqcp Þnf
2 D @X @Y @X Da  @X 2 @Y 2
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
keff ¼ kstatic þ kBrownian ; leff ¼ lstatic þ lBrownian ;
1:75 U 2D þ V 2D U D

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffi ; ð22aÞ sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
150 Da 3 ! jT
  lBrownian 4
¼ 5  10 b1 /qbf f ðT; /Þ;
1 @V D @V D @P Pr Pr @ 2 U D @ 2 U D 2qs Rs 1
UD þ VD ¼

VD þ þ
 2 @X @Y @X Da  @X 2 @Y 2
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1:75 U 2D þ V 2D V D 4 jT

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffi þ RaPrh: ð22bÞ kBrownian ¼ 5  10 b1 /qbf ðcp Þbf f ðT; /Þ;
2qs Rs 2
150 Da 3
Recently, Singh et al. [57] presented the governing equations in lbf
terms of the intrinsic velocities (U I ; V I ). The nondimensional forms lstatic ¼ ;
ð1
/Þ2:5
of governing equations (using Eq. (18)) are:

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Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 7
 
ðks þ2kbf Þ
2/ðkbf
ks Þ
kstatic ¼ kbf ðoriginal Maxwell modelÞ; 2.2. Boundary conditions
ðks þ2kbf Þþ/ðkbf
ks Þ
" #
3
ðkeq þ2kbf Þþ2/ðkeq
kbf Þð1þ rÞ The no-slip boundary conditions at all the solid boundaries dur-
¼ kbf ðmodified Maxwell modelÞ;
ðkeq þ2kbf Þ
/ðkeq
kbf Þð1þ rÞ3 ing the natural convection process are as follows

" # @2w @2w

2ð1
c1 Þ þ ð1 þ 2c1 Þð1 þ rÞ3 Stationary walls : u ¼ v ¼ 0; X¼ ; or ; ð29aÞ
keq ¼ ks c1 : ð25Þ @y2 @x2
3

ð1
c1 Þ þ ð1 þ 2c1 Þð1 þ rÞ
and several thermal boundary conditions (Fig. 1(a–d)) have been
Note that, qs ; qbf and qnf are the densities of the nanoparticles, used as follows:
base fluid and nanofluid respectively, lbf ; lnf represent the
Adiabatic wall : rT ¼ 0;
dynamic viscosities of the base fluid and nanofluid respectively,
mbf ; mnf represent the kinematic viscosities of the base fluid and Isothermal walls : T ¼ T h or T c ;
nanofluid respectively. Here / denotes the volume fraction of py
Sinusoidally heated vertical walls : T ¼ T h
ðT h
T c Þsin þ Tc;
nanoparticles in the base fluid, bbf and bs are thermal expansion L
px
coefficients of the base fluid and solid, respectively; abf and anf Sinusoidally heated horizontal walls : T ¼ T h
ðT h
T c Þsin þ Tc
denote the thermal diffusivity of the base fluid and nanofluid
L
y
respectively. Also, r is the ratio of the thickness of the nano-layer Linearly heated vertical walls : T ¼ T h
ðT h
T c Þ ;
L
to the original radius of nanoparticles, kbf and ks are the thermal x
conductivities of the base fluid and nanoparticles, respectively, keq Linearly heated horizontal walls : T ¼ T h
ðT h
T c Þ : ð29bÞ
L
is the equivalent thermal conductivity of nanoparticles and their
layers, c1 is the ratio of the thermal conductivity of the nano-
2.3. Heat transfer rates: Nusselt numbers
layers (knl ) to the thermal conductivity of the nanoparticles (ks ),
f 1 and f 2 are the modeling functions, Ra and Pr are Rayleigh and
The dimensionless heat flux in terms of the local Nusselt num-
Prandtl numbers, respectively. Note that, keff ¼ kstatic and
ber (Nu) is defined as
leff ¼ lstatic in the absence of Brownian motion of the nanoparticles.
Using the dimensionless variables enlisted below, hL @h
Nu ¼ ¼
; ð30Þ
x y uL vL T
Tc k @n
X¼ ; Y¼ ; U¼ ; V¼ ; h¼ ;
L L abf abf Th
Tc
where h is the convection heat transfer coefficient. For the nanoflu-
pL 2
mbf gbbf ðT h
T c ÞL3 Pr ids, the local Nusselt number ðNuÞ is modified as
P¼ ; Pr ¼ ; Ra ¼ ; ð26Þ
2
qbf abf abf m2bf  
hL knf @h
Nu ¼ ¼
: ð31Þ
the dimensionless forms of mass, momentum and energy Eqs. kf kbf @n
(24b)–(24d) are as follows:
The average Nusselt number (NuS ) represents the overall heat
transfer rate along the wall and is defined as
2.1.3.1. Pressure velocity formulation [62].
Z S
@U @V 1
þ ¼ 0; ð27aÞ NuS ¼ Nuds; ð32Þ
@X @Y !
S 0

@U @U qbf @P mnf @2U @2U where S is the arc length of the wall.
U þV ¼
þ Pr þ ; ð27bÞ
@X @Y qnf @X mbf @X 2
@Y 2
! 2.4. Heat flow visualization: heatlines
@V @V qbf @P mnf @2V @2V
U þV ¼
þ Pr þ
@X @Y qnf @Y mbf @X 2
@Y 2
The heatlines, which are analogous to the streamlines, may be
ð1
/ÞðqbÞbf þ /ðqbÞs used to visualize the path and intensity of heat flow within cavi-
þ RaPrh ; ð27cÞ ties. The trajectories of heatlines are useful to visualize the flow
qnf bnf
! of heat from the hot to cold regime within the cavity and the dis-
@h @h anf @ 2 h @ 2 h tribution of heat in a cavity during the two-dimensional convective
U þV ¼ þ : ð27dÞ
@X @Y abf @X 2 @Y 2 transport process was studied with the help of heatlines [68].
Mathematically, the heatlines are represented by the heatfunc-
tions. The heatfunction (h) can be used to plot the heatlines and
2.1.3.2. Streamfunction–Vorticity formulation [67]. 
    ! is obtained from the conductive heat fluxes
@T ;
@T as well
@x @y
@ @w @ @w @ lnf @ X
X
X ¼ as the convective heat fluxes (uT; v T). The heatfunction ðhÞ satisfies
@X @Y @Y @X @X lbf @X
!! the steady energy balance equation for the fluid media or homoge-
@ lnf @ X Pr neous porous medium:
þ
@Y lbf @Y ½ð1
/Þ þ / qqs  !
!
bf
@T @T @2T @2T
@h u þv ¼a þ ; ð33Þ
þ RaPr /
bs
þ ð1
/Þ ; ð28aÞ @x @y @x2 @y2
@X bbf
knf ! such that,
@w @h @w @h kbf @2h @2h

¼h i þ ; ð28bÞ @h @T
@Y @X @X @Y ðqc Þ
ð1
/Þ þ / ðqcppÞ s @X 2 @Y 2 ¼ qcp uðT
T 0 Þ
k ; ð34aÞ
bf @y @x
@2w @2w @h @T
X¼

: ð28cÞ
¼ qcp v ðT
T 0 Þ
k : ð34bÞ
@X 2
@Y 2 @x @y

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8 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

 2 " (    ) 
 2 2 #
The dimensionless form of the heatfunction (P) using the @h @h @U
2
@V
2
@V @U
Stotal ¼ þU 2
þ þ þ þ ; ð39aÞ
nondimensional variables (see Eq. (2)) are as follows: @X @Y @X @Y @X @Y
2 ! ! 3
@P @h  2  2 2 2
¼ Uh
; ð35aÞ @h @h @2w @2w @2w 5
@Y @X Stotal ¼ þ þ U44 þ 2
2 : ð39bÞ
@X @Y @X@Y @ Y @ X
@P @h

¼ Vh
; ð35bÞ
@X @Y lT 0 a 2
Here U ¼ kL2
DT 2
is the irreversibility distribution ratio. The value
which can be written in a single equation
of U was taken as 10
2 [74] or 10
4 [76,77] for the fluid media.
@ P 2
@ P
2
@ @
þ ¼ ðUhÞ
ðVhÞ: ð36Þ
@X 2 @Y 2 @Y @X 2.5.2. Porous media
There are various forms of the entropy generation during natu-
The positive sign of P denotes the anti-clockwise circulation
ral convection in the fluid saturated porous media [43]. The
and negative sign represents the clockwise circulation. The bound-
entropy generation due to the fluid friction depends on the viscous
ary conditions of the heatfunction for natural convection in the
dissipation models and the detailed discussion on various viscous
bounded enclosure [69,70] are as follows (see Fig. 1(a–d)):
dissipation models, their limits of applicability and other impor-
adiabatic wall : P ¼ 0 or a reference value; tant issues on various aspects of modeling viscous dissipation in
isothermal hot or cold wall : n:rP ¼ 0: ð37Þ porous media is available in the open literature [78–81]. In a fluid
saturated porous media, based on the assumption of the local ther-
Note that, the boundary conditions for P involving the non- mal equilibrium and the Darcy model, the entropy generation
isothermal walls (Eq. (29b)) may be obtained for various cases equation for natural convection is [82]:
using Eqs. (35a) and (35b). The Dirichlet boundary conditions for " 
2  2 #
P at the corner nodes of two dimensional domain are obtained k @T @T lf 2
S_ 000
gen ¼ 2 þ þ ðu þ v 2D Þ: ð40Þ
via the integration of Eqs. (35a) and (35b) [69,70]. T0 @x @y KT 0 D

2.5. Entropy generation The dimensionless form of the total entropy generation in terms
of velocity and streamfunction using dimensionless variables (Eq.
Natural convection in the closed cavities become a very rich (13)) are
area of the investigation due to its versatile applications in the  2
2  
@h@h
thermal engineering, design and optimization of a thermal system. Stotal ¼ þ U U 2D þ V 2D ;
þ ð41aÞ
However, the efficiency of the thermal system is affected due to the @X@Y
 2  2 "   2 #
2
irreversibilities of the system. Thus, in order to improve the effi- @h @h @w @w
ciency of the system, the irreversibilities of the system are required Stotal ¼ þ þU þ : ð41bÞ
@X @Y @Y @X
to be minimized. Although several advanced optimization methods
such as the artificial neural network, genetic algorithms may be lf T 0 a2eff
Here U ¼ k 2 is the irreversibility distribution ratio for the
adequate to present the physical explanation behind the optimized eff K DT

situation, the entropy generation minimization (EGM) is an effi- porous media and U ¼ 10
2 is considered by earlier researchers
cient optimization method based on the concepts of Thermody- [82,83].
namics as reported by several researchers. The entropy Al-Hadhrami et al. [79] proposed the viscous dissipation model
generation during natural convection can be studied via combining which includes the correct asymptotic behavior in both the fully
the irreversibilities due to temperature gradient (heat transfer irre- Darcy and Newtonian fluid flow limits. Based on the model
versibility) and irreversibilities due to velocity gradient (fluid fric- (obtained from the momentum equation known as Brinkman
tion irreversibility) [71,72]. Entropy generation minimization model) suggested by Al-Hadhrami et al. [79], the entropy genera-
(EGM) was first introduced by Bejan [73]. tion for natural convection is
"   2 #
2
keff @T @T lf 2
2.5.1. Fluid media S_ 000
gen ¼ þ þ ðu þ v 2D Þ
Based on the thermodynamic equilibrium of linear transport T 20 @x @y KT 0 D
theory, the volumetric entropy generation for fluid media in the
(  2  2 !  2 )
lf @uD @v D @ v D @uD
two dimensional Cartesian coordinate system is given as: þ 2 þ þ þ : ð42Þ
" T 0 @x @y @x @y
 2 #
2
k @T @T
S_ 000 ¼ 2 þ The dimensionless form of the total entropy generation in the
gen
T0 @x @y
"   porous media using the dimensionless variables (Eq. (21)) is
 2 !  2 #
@v @ v @u " (  2 !
2
lf @u  2  2 2 
þ 2 þ þ þ : ð38Þ @h @h @U D @V D
T0 @x @y @x @y Stotal ¼ þ þ U ðU 2D þV 2D ÞþDa 2 þ
@X @Y @X @Y
Here S_ 000  2 )#
gen denotes the entropy generation in the fluid media and @V D @U D
T 0 denotes the temperature. Note that, the first term in the right þ þ : ð43Þ
@X @Y
hand side of the above equation corresponds to the rate of the
entropy generation associated with the heat transfer which is T o lf a2eff
Here U ¼ k 2 is the irreversibility distribution ratio and
due to temperature difference. The entropy generation due to the eff ðDTÞ K

2
fluid friction (velocity gradient) is presented in the second term U ¼ 10 is considered by earlier researchers [84,85]. Recently,
of the right hand side of Eq. (38). The dimensionless form of the Basak and coauthors [57,84] used the Darcy–Brinkman model
total entropy generation [74,75] in terms of velocity temperature and also the Darcy–Brinkman extended Forchheimer model for
formulation and streamfunction–vorticity formulation, respec- the momentum balance equations and the dimensionless form of
tively are obtained using the dimensionless variables or numbers the entropy generation equation due to the heat transfer ðSh Þ and
(Eq. (2)) as follows: fluid friction ðSw Þ using Eq. (18) is as follows:

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 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 9

 2
2 h  i
@h @h 3. Triangular enclosures
Stotal ¼ þ U 2I þ V 2I
þ
@X @Y
"  2  2 !  2 # 3.1. Fluid media
@U I @V I @U I @V I
þ Dam 2 þ þ þ : ð44Þ
@X @Y @Y @X Natural convection and fluid flow in the triangular enclosures
 2 have been analyzed extensively in versatile applications. Salmun
lf T o
Here U ¼ ffiffiffim
pa
is the irreversibility distribution ratio for [42] reported convection patterns in a triangular enclosure filled
keff K DT
pffiffiffi
the porous media and am ¼ aeff . As mentioned earlier, with air (Pr ¼ 0:72) or water (Pr ¼ 7:1) and 102 6 Ra 6 105 for var-

2
U ¼ 10 is considered by earlier studies [84,57]. ious aspect ratios (A ¼ height
base
¼ 0:1
1) in the presence of the hot
bottom wall, cold hypotenuse and adiabatic vertical wall. The time
dependent, vorticity-velocity formulation of the governing equa-
2.5.3. Nanofluids tions (Eqs. (3a), (8a) and (8b)) were solved numerically using
The volumetric total entropy generation for the nanofluids is two different schemes to validate the available results in the liter-
given by [86]: ature. Note that, the streamfunction equation in both schemes is
solved by the successive over relaxation method (SOR). It was
" 2  2 # "  2  2 !  2 # observed that, at the low Ra, the changes in the aspect ratio had
knf @T @T lnf @u @v @ v @u
S_ 000
gen ¼ 2 þ þ 2 þ þ þ ; the negligible effect on the streamfunction and isotherms within
T0 @x @y T0 @x @y @x @y the enclosure. However, the changes in the aspect ratio do affect
ð45Þ the flow pattern and temperature fields significantly at the high
Ra (Fig. 2(i)). It was found that, as the aspect ratio decreases, the
multiple circulation cells are formed within the triangular enclo-
and the dimensionless form using the relationships in Eq. (25) is
sure, at the high Ra. The fluid motion is found to be more intense
given as
in the right half of the enclosure and hence, the size of streamline
" 2  2 # "  2  2 !  2 # circulation cells is observed to increase in size near those regions.
@h @h @U @V @V @U This further results in the periodic isotherm distribution through-
Stotal ¼ þ þU 2 þ þ þ :
@X @Y @X @Y @X @Y out the enclosure. In addition, the variation of the average Nusselt
ð46Þ number with time was studied in details. It was observed that, the
average Nusselt number at the bottom wall rises abruptly and
l 2
nf T 0 anf thereafter, that slowly increases the steady-state value, for all
Here U ¼ knf L2 DT 2
is the irreversibility distribution ratio for
aspect ratios (Fig. 2(ii)).
entropy generation in nanofluids. The flow within a triangular enclosure representing an attic
with the hot base, cooled inclined surface and insulated vertical
side wall, has been modeled by Haese and Teubner [4]. The
2.6. Entropy generation number unsteady version of the vorticity-velocity formulation of the gov-
erning Eqs. (8a) and (8b) were solved numerically using the finite
The relationship between the volumetric total entropy genera- different method. The inflow/outflow system on the temperature
tion and dimensionless entropy generation number is given as distribution of the attic has been studied in order to eradicate
follows: the temperature-related problems in buildings. Studies were car-
ried out for fluids with Pr ¼ 0:71 for various values of slopes of
S000
gen
the inclined wall and Ra (710, 7100, 71,000 and 710,000). At the
Ns ¼ : ð47Þ high Ra, for larger aspect ratios, the secondary circulation cells of
S000
0
the higher magnitude are observed at the top and left portions of
Here, N s is the dimensionless entropy generation number, S000
gen is
the triangular enclosure with a large primary circulation cell, occu-
the volumetric entropy generation rate and S000 pying the central core region. As the aspect ratio decreases, the pri-
0 is the characteristics
transfer rate [71]. mary circulation cells weaken and the secondary circulation cells
expand in size and intensifies. This results in the wavy distribution
of the isotherms throughout the enclosure at the high Ra and the
distribution becomes qualitatively similar to that observed in the
2.7. Numerical simulations and post processing
earlier work [42]. Further, the air temperature within the attic
was found to be increased by adding more inflow points to the
A number of works have been carried out to develop the numer-
enclosure. Also, the inflow velocity plays the significant role in
ical schemes in order to solve the coupled governing equations
enhancing the temperature of fluid near the base of the attic.
(mass balance, momentum balance and energy balance equations
Joudi et al. [5] studied the performance of a prism shaped stor-
for the pure fluid media or fluid saturated porous media or nano-
age solar collector with a right triangular cross sectional area for
fluid) with various velocity and thermal boundary conditions for
the hot inclined wall and well insulated bottom and vertical walls.
natural convection in the closed enclosures. A comprehensive
The governing equations (Eqs. (1a)–(1d)) are solved by the Galer-
review of the previous studies shows that, the study of natural con-
kin finite element method using ANSYS software. The temperature
vection in cavities was carried out using the finite difference, finite
distribution of water (Pr ¼ 7) in the storage solar collector at vari-
volume and finite element methods. Further, the equation of heat-
ous times was observed via isotherms for the typical winter and
lines with appropriate heatline boundary conditions were solved
summer days. It was found that, early in the day, the temperature
by researchers using several numerical techniques to visualize
distribution is symmetric due to the low velocity, which is insuffi-
the energy flow during natural convection within the closed cavi-
cient to circulate the fluid (water) within the system (Fig. 3). How-
ties. In addition, the finite difference, finite volume and finite ele-
ever, as the day progressed, the convective effects become more
ment methods are used to evaluate derivative terms of the
prominent leading to the distortion of isotherms. This also resulted
entropy generation equations in the post processing part to calcu-
in the formation of multiple fluid circulation cells during the
late the irreversibilities in the thermal systems.

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10 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Fig. 2. (i) Steady-state streamfunction ðwÞ (left column) and isotherm ðhÞ (right column) with Prandtl number, Pr ¼ 0:72, Grashof number, Gr ¼ 105 and height-base aspect
ratio, (a) A ¼ 1:0, (b) A ¼ 0:5, (c) A ¼ 0:3, (d) A ¼ 0:15 and (e) A ¼ 0:1 for hot bottom wall, cold hypotenuse and adiabatic vertical walls [42]; (ii) the average Nusselt number
(Nu) vs time (t) for numerical experiments with Pr ¼ 0:72; Gr ¼ 105 for various A [42]. (figure is reproduced from Salmun [42] with permission from Elsevier)

evening time (Fig. 3). During the last hours, the whole tank content
was found to be nearly at the same temperature because of the
diminishing solar radiation and high velocity in the tank. Further,
it was found that the insertion of a horizontal partition within
the storage collector enhances stratification of the water and ren-
ders higher mean tank temperature and higher stored energy. This
enhancement was found to be maximum for the height ratio 0:2
(ratio of the height of the partition and height of the triangular cav-
ity) and length ratio 0:6 (ratio of the length of the partition and
base of the triangular cavity).
Ridouane et al. [87] investigated the laminar natural convection
in the air (Pr ¼ 0:7) filled right-angled triangular enclosure with
the hot vertical wall, cold inclined wall and adiabatic horizontal
wall. They performed the computational analysis using the finite
volume method and reported the effect of the apex angle
(5 6 a 6 63 ) on heat and fluid flows for various height based

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 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 11

Fig. 3. Temperature (Kelvin) and velocity (m/s) distribution of water (Pr ¼ 7:2) in the storage solar collector for hot inclined wall and adiabatic bottom and side walls during
the operation period at 1st of January [5]. (figure is reproduced from Joudi et al. [5] with permission from Elsevier).

Rayleigh numbers (RaH ), 103 6 RaH 6 106 . The convective term in
the governing equations (Eqs. (1a)–(1d)) was discretized using
the QUICK scheme whereas the pressure–velocity coupling was
handled by the SIMPLE scheme. The mean wall heat flux at the ver-
tical heated wall (qw ) has been evaluated and illustrated in this
work [87]. At the low RaH (the height based Rayleigh number),
the single vortex with the clockwise rotation was found to occur
at the center of the enclosure, irrespective of the apex angles. How-
ever, at the high RaH (RaH ¼ 106 ), the vortex for the larger apex
angles was observed to move downward to the bottom corners
of the enclosure whereas the vortex for the smaller apex angle
was found to be unaffected. In addition, the strength of the vortex
is also enhanced with RaH as seen via the magnitude of the stream-
function gradient. It was also observed that the local Nusselt num-
ber attains the largest value a ¼ 15 whereas the smallest value
occurs for a ¼ 63 . Note that the average heat transfer rate
increases with RaH for each fixed apex angle. Also, the average heat
transfer rate diminishes with the apex angles for each fixed RaH .
Finally it was found that, the heat transfer rate within the enclo-
sure enhances largely with the decrease in both a and RaH . Thus,
it may be concluded that the inclination angle and RaH play the sig-
nificant role in natural convection heat transfer within a triangular
enclosure.
Oztop et al. [88] examined the convective heat transfer and fluid
flow in a shed roof with or without eave for the summer boundary
conditions. The non-dimensional streamfunction–vorticity form of
the governing equations (Eqs. (6a)–(7))) were solved using the suc-
cessive under relaxation (SUR) method. The boundary condition
indicates that the inclined surface and eave were kept at the hot
isothermal condition and the bottom wall of the roof was cooled
with the adiabatic vertical wall. Numerical simulations were car-
ried out involving various governing parameters such as the aspect
ratio, eave length and Rayleigh number for Pr ¼ 0:7. It is interesting
to observe that, the single fluid circulation cell occurs within the tri-
angular enclosure at 103 6 Ra 6 105 , irrespective of the eave length
and aspect ratio (AR). Also, the isotherms were found to be mostly
parallel to the bottom wall and perpendicular to the insulated ver-
tical wall, irrespective of the aspect ratios (AR), for the same range
of Ra. Further, it is found that, at Ra ¼ 106 and AR ¼ 0:5, the large
single primary circulation cell breaks up into multiple circulation
cells due to the higher convective force. It is interesting to observe
that, the formation of single fluid circulation cell takes place even at
Ra ¼ 106 for aspect ratios other than AR ¼ 0:5, irrespective of the
eave lengths considered. However, distorted isotherms occur
within the enclosure with the increase in Ra, for all the aspect ratios
(AR) and eave lengths. Further, it was observed that the heat trans-

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12 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
fer rate from the inclined wall to the bottom wall increases as the
eave length increases. Also, it was found that the presence of the
eave in the shed roof, increases the heat transfer rate. Overall, it
may be concluded that the eave length and aspect ratio are the
two most effective parameters to control the heat transfer rates
for the identical Ra.
Kent [89] carried out the studies on laminar natural convection
in an enclosure of the isosceles triangular cross-section with the
cold base and hot inclined walls for different base angles
ð15 6 c 6 75 Þ and various Ra (103
105 ) for Pr ¼ 0:71. The gov-
erning equations (Eqs. (3a)–(3d)) were discretized using the finite
volume method and solved using the SIMPLE algorithm. Base
angles were found to have the significant influence on the fluid
flow and heat transfer within the triangular enclosure. The uniform
heating of the side walls results in the formation of two symmetric
circulation cells. It is interesting to note that the qualitative trends
of the streamlines remain similar for all Ra and base angles. As the
base angle decreases, the size of the upper isothermal region
reduces and the isotherms are found to be compressed towards
the bottom wall. As a result, the high temperature gradient was
found to occur in the lower section of the triangular region, espe-
cially near the edges of the bottom wall indicating a considerable
proportion of the heat transfer rates in those regions. Thus, the tri-
angular enclosures with the lower base angles are found to be
more effective to achieve the higher heat transfer rate.
Kent et al. [90] further numerically investigated the phe-
nomenon of natural convection in the right angled triangular
domain filled with air (Pr ¼ 0:71). The studies were carried out
for various aspect ratios (0:1 6 A 6 4) and Rayleigh numbers
(103 6 Ra 6 105 ) at different thermal boundary conditions: (i) case
1: the hypotenuse is cold, horizontal wall is adiabatic and vertical
wall is hot (A ¼ 1), (ii) case 2: the hypotenuse is adiabatic, horizon-
tal wall is hot and vertical wall is cold (A ¼ 1), (iii) case 3: the
hypotenuse is cold, horizontal wall is hot and vertical wall is adia-
batic (A ¼ 0:1; 0:5; 1; 2 and 4), (iv) case 4: the hypotenuse is cold,
horizontal and vertical walls are hot (A ¼ 1), and (v) case 5: the
quarter circle arc is cold, horizontal wall is adiabatic and vertical
wall is hot (A ¼ 1). The finite volume method was used for dis-
cretization of the governing equations (Eqs. (3a)–(3d)) and subse-
quently, the equations were solved using the Fluent 6:0:12
commercial software. Results for the various cases were also com-
pared with those of a quarter circular enclosure. It was observed
that, for the higher aspect ratios (A), the effect of the hot bottom
wall at the upper portion of the triangle is negligible as fluid forms
a single circulation cell which covers only the middle and bottom
portions of the triangular enclosure for 103 6 Ra 6 105 . As a result,
the isotherms are observed to be smooth throughout the enclosure,
depicting the dominance of conduction dominant regime, at the
higher aspect ratios (A), throughout the range of Ra
(Ra ¼ 103
105 ). However, the multiple streamline circulation
cells are formed for the triangles with the lower aspect ratios,
throughout the domain as Ra increases from 103 to 105 . In addition,
the mean Nusselt number along the hot wall of the triangular
enclosure for the lower aspect ratios was found to be higher which
may be attributed to the high convective effect on the heat transfer
in the triangle with the lowest aspect ratio. Overall, the mean Nus-
selt number for the hot wall was observed to increase with Ra for
various thermal boundary conditions, signifying the enhanced con-
vective heat transfer.
Saha et al. [91] analyzed natural convection in an air filled
(Pr ¼ 0:71) tilted triangular enclosure with the discrete bottom
heating. The remaining parts of the bottom wall are insulated
and the other two walls are isothermally cold. The dimensionless
form of governing equations (Eqs. (1a)–(1d)) are modified for the
inclined cavity and they are solved using the finite element based
Please cite this article in press as: D. Das et al., Studies on natural convection within enclosures of various (non-square) shapes – A review, Int. J. Heat Mass
Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
adaptive meshing technique. Numerical tests were conducted with
various aspect ratios (0.5–1) and inclination angles (0°–60°). The
Grashof number based on the enclosure height was varied from
103 to 106 . As the aspect ratio increases, the primary circulating
cell gradually expands within the enclosure space, resulting in
higher recirculation strength. The tiny secondary circulation cells
are observed near the right corners of the triangular enclosure
and those gradually decrease in size as Gr increases. Also, the iso-
therms are mostly compressed near the heater and they are also
largely distorted in the core, at higher Gr. For the lower aspect
ratios (A ¼ 0:5) with the inclination angle, u ¼ 0 , the symmetric
circulation cells are observed for Gr ¼ 103
106 . It is interesting
to observe that for A ¼ 0:5, the secondary circulation cells in the
right bottom corners decrease in size with the inclination angle.
As a result, the magnitude of the primary circulation cell increases
and isotherms are strongly compressed, resulting in a large tem-
perature gradient near the right wall. Further, the size of the heater
was found to have the significant effect on the heat transfer rate
within the enclosure. The average Nusselt number is found to
decrease with Gr whereas that is observed to increase with the
inclination angle. The optimum thermal performance was achieved
with the small heater size at the higher Grashof number and larger
inclination angles.
Basak et al. [92,93] implemented the penalty finite element
method with the pressure velocity formulation (Eqs. (3a)–(3d)) in
order to study the effect of various thermal boundary conditions
during natural convection in the right-angled and isosceles trian-
gular enclosures. Both the studies involve two different cases of
thermal boundary conditions. Basak et al. [92] considered the fol-
lowing cases within the right angled triangle enclosure: (i) the uni-
form or linear heating of the vertical wall with isothermally cold
inclined wall (ii) the uniform or linear heating of the inclined wall
with isothermally cold vertical wall. Further, Basak et al. [93] also
investigated the effect of two different thermal boundary condi-
tions in the isosceles triangle enclosure: (i) case 1: the uniformly
heating of the inclined walls with cold isothermal bottom wall
(ii) case 2: the non-uniform heating of the inclined walls with cold
isothermal bottom wall. Studies were carried out over the wide
range of Ra (103 6 Ra 6 105 ) and Pr (0:026 6 Pr 6 1000) numbers.
At the onset of convection dominant mode, the isotherms are com-
pressed towards the hot wall. However, at the higher Ra, the iso-
therms are highly distorted and confined to only some portion of
the triangle. The conduction dominant heat transfer was observed
up till Ra 6 6  104 , during the uniform and non-uniform heating
of the side walls with Pr ¼ 0:026 [93]. Further, it was found that
the overall heat transfer rate is lower for the linear heating cases.
Overall, it was concluded that the Rayleigh number (Ra) has the
stronger effect on the heat transfer rate for all Prandtl numbers
(Pr).
Koca et al. [94] investigated the effect of Prandtl number on nat-
ural convection in air (Pr ¼ 0:71) filled triangular enclosures with
the localized heating from below. The finite-difference technique
was used to solve the governing equations (Eqs. (6a)–(7)). The bot-
tom wall of the triangle was heated partially with the heater while
the inclined wall was maintained at a lower uniform temperature.
The remaining portion of the bottom wall and the entire vertical
wall were kept insulated. The detailed analysis was carried out
for the dimensionless heater locations (0:15
0:95), dimensionless
heater length (0:1
0:9), Prandtl number (0:01 6 Pr 6 15) and Ra
(103 6 Ra 6 106 ). The results were presented via streamlines and
isotherms involving the aspect ratio of 1 for various heater loca-
tions and heater lengths. At Ra ¼ 103 and 104 , the fluid rises from
the middle portion of the heater and falls down along the side
walls forming two fluid circulation cells (Fig. 4(i)(a and b)). Due
to the inclined wall, lesser fluid movement occurs in the right half
 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 13

and consequently the size of the fluid circulation cell in that region
decreases, in contrast to the circulation cell present in the left half.
Note that, at Ra ¼ 103 , smooth isotherms are observed throughout
the enclosure depicting the dominance of the viscous force over
buoyancy force (Fig. 4(i)(a)). However, at Ra ¼ 104 , the isotherms
are distorted and they are largely compressed towards the inclined
wall and heater (Fig. 4(i)(b)). At Ra ¼ 105 , the strength of the fluid
is found to be increased and a large primary circulation cell is
formed in the counter clockwise direction (Fig. 4(i)(c)). However,
the multiple cells with the large intensity are formed at the con-
vection regime with the higher Ra (Fig. 4(i)(c and d)). It was also
found that the heat transfer rate is increased with the heater
length, Rayleigh number and Prandtl number. Also, the heat trans-
fer rate was found to be maximum when the heater was present
near the right corner of the triangular enclosure (Fig. 4(ii)(a–c)).
Varol et al. [95] carried out numerical studies on natural con-
vection heat transfer in a triangular enclosure with a flush
mounted heater on the vertical wall. The remaining portion of
the vertical wall was maintained adiabatic. In addition, the bottom
wall was also maintained adiabatic whereas, the inclined wall was
isothermally cooled. The finite difference method has been used to
solve the governing equations (Eqs. (6a)–(8b)) and linear algebraic
equations were solved via the Successive Under Relaxation (SUR)
technique. The results were obtained in terms of streamlines and
isotherms for various Rayleigh numbers (104 6 Ra 6 106 ) with
Pr ¼ 0:71. The effect of the location of heaters and aspect ratio of

Fig. 4. (i) Streamfunction ðwÞ and isotherm ðhÞ for Prandtl number, Pr ¼ 0:71, dimensionless heater length, w ¼ 0:5, dimensionless heater location, s ¼ 0:5, aspect ratio, A ¼ 1
for various Rayleigh numbers, (a) Ra ¼ 103 (b) Ra ¼ 104 (c) Ra ¼ 105 and (d) Ra ¼ 106 [94]; (ii) variation of mean Nusselt number (Nu) with Rayleigh number (Ra) for various
values of Pr (Pr ¼ 0:01
15) and A ¼ 1:0 (a) w ¼ 0:2 and s ¼ 0:5, (b) w ¼ 0:8 and s ¼ 0:5 and (c) w ¼ 0:2 and s ¼ 0:2 [94]. (figures are reproduced from Koca et al. [94] with
permission from Elsevier).

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14 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

the triangle on the mean Nusselt number (Nu) were also studied.
Fig. 5(i) illustrates the streamlines and isotherms for the case
involving the central positioning of the heaters along the vertical
wall for various Ra. A single clockwise fluid circulation cell is
observed for all Ra (Fig. 5(i)). As Ra increases, the vortex of the fluid
circulation cell shifts to the top corner of the triangle (Fig. 5(i)(a–
c)). Isotherms demonstrate a semi-circle shaped distribution at
the low Ra due to the lesser intensity of fluid flow. As Rayleigh
number increases, isotherms are found to be more compressed
towards the heaters and upper half of the inclined wall due to
the high thermal mixing near the core (Fig. 5(i)(a–c)). It is found
that the mean Nusselt number (Nu) is almost invariant with Ra
for the case involving the heater positioning along the upper half
of the left wall (Fig. 5(ii)(a–c)). On the other hand, Nu is found to
increase monotonically with Ra for the cases involving the location
of the heaters along the lower and central portion of the vertical
wall (Fig. 5(ii)(a–c)). It may also be noted that the overall Nu
decreases with the aspect ratio for all the heater positions along
the vertical wall.
Sojoudi et al. [96] carried out the numerical simulations in
order to study the unsteady air flow and heat transfer in a parti-
tioned triangular cavity which was differentially heated from the
left inclined wall. Also, an additional heat source was placed at
the bottom wall of the triangular cavity. The finite volume numer-
ical method was employed to solve the governing equations (Eqs.
(1a)–(1d)). The effect of various parameters on the fluid flow and
heat transfer was studied including Rayleigh number
(103 6 Ra 6 106 ), heater size (hs ¼ 0:2
0:6) and aspect ratio
(A ¼ 0:1
1) with Pr ¼ 0:72. It was observed that less time is
needed at higher Ra to reach the steady state. At higher Ra, iso-
therm distribution depicts the formation of higher thermal gradi-
ent adjacent to the left inclined wall and the effect was found to
be more prominent at Ra ¼ 105 . At Ra ¼ 103 ; 104 and 106 , a single
large fluid circulation cell is observed within each left and right

Fig. 5. (i) Streamfunction (w) and isotherm (h) for the central positioning of the heater (P2) involving the aspect ratio, A ¼ 1, along the vertical wall for (a) Ra ¼ 104 , (b)
Ra ¼ 105 and (c) Ra ¼ 106 for Pr ¼ 0:71 (ii) Variation of mean Nusselt number (Nu) with different Rayleigh number (Ra) for various aspect ratios, (a) A ¼ 0:3, (b) A ¼ 0:6, (c)
A ¼ 1 and heater positions (P1: heater located along the upper half of the left wall, P2: heater centrally located along the left wall, P3: heater located along the lower half of
the left wall) [95]. (figures are reproduced from Varol et al. [95] with permission from Elsevier).

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 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 15

halves of the cavities whereas, at Ra ¼ 105 , the single fluid circula-

tion cell in the right half of the cavity is split into smaller cells
under the influence of dominant natural convection. For the
greater heater size (hs P 0:5), the multiple circulation cells in the
right half of the cavity is found to expand whereas a single fluid cir-
culation cell still occurs in the left half of the cavity. In addition, it
is also found that the thermal boundary layer thickness is
increased along the left wall for the greater heater size
(hs P 0:5). For the higher values of A, the number of vortices is
reduced and a single large cell is formed in each left and right
halves of the cavity. The isotherms depict that the left half of the
cavity is almost maintained hot at higher A. It is found that the
variation of Ra; A and hs does not have any significant effect on
the heat transfer rate of the left wall (Nu). It is also observed that
Nu of the left wall decreases with time.
Basak and co-workers [70,97,98] also investigated natural con-
vection phenomena with the heat flow visualization in triangular
enclosures via the heatline (Eq. (36)) approach. Basak et al. [70]
analyzed the heat flow pattern in an inverted triangular cavity with
the hot inclined walls and cold horizontal wall using Bejan’s heat-
line concept. Their study focuses on the effect of the Prandtl num-
ber (Pr ¼ 0:015
1000) and Rayleigh number ðRa ¼ 102
105 ) for
the heat flow visualization during natural convection. It was
reported that at the low Ra, the heatlines are smooth and perfectly
normal to the isotherms indicating the dominance of conduction.
In addition, the multiple secondary circulation cells were formed
for the fluid with the low Pr and they gradually disappear with
Pr (Pr P 0:7). Also, the overall heat transfer rate shows the wavy
pattern due to the multiple circulation cells at Pr ¼ 0:015 and
0:026 and this pattern disappears at the high Pr. Kaluri et al. [97]
carried out the detailed analysis on the effects of the aspect ratio
and thermal boundary conditions for the fluid and heat flow within
right angled triangular enclosures for a wide range of fluids at var-
ious Ra (Ra ¼ 103
105 ) via the heatline approach. The aspect ratio
of the triangular domain was adjusted by varying the top angle,
which represents the angle between the vertical and inclined
walls. It was observed that, the maximum heat flux at the top ver-
tex decreases and the thermal mixing within the cavity increases
with the top angles. For the lower top angles, the heatlines in the
upper zone remain nearly parallel even at the higher Ra, depicting
the lesser heat transfer rate to the upper portion of the enclosure.
However, as the top angle increases, the circular heatline cells
cover the major portions of the cavity, depicting the convection
dominant mode. It is also found that, the fluid in the lower corners
Fig. 6. Isotherm ðhÞ, streamfunction ðwÞ and heatfunction ðPÞ at Rayleigh number,
is adequately heated in the presence of the hot right wall in con- Ra ¼ 105 involving various Prandtl numbers (a) Pr ¼ 0:015 and (b) Pr ¼ 1000 [98].
trast to the cold left wall. Overall, the isotherms and streamfunc- (figures are reproduced from Basak et al. [98] with permission from Elsevier).
tions are found to be qualitatively similar to the previous works
[92,93] irrespective of Ra and Pr. Further, the heat transfer charac-
and heat flow is found to be intensified. However, the multiple cir-
teristics, in terms of the average Nusselt numbers, indicate that the
culations cells still occur in the lower triangle similar to Pr ¼ 0:015.
isothermal heating cases exhibit the exponential decrease in Nus-
The heat transport within the enclosure is found to be convection
selt number with Ra whereas the linear heating cases show the
dominant based on the multiple flow and heat circulation cells for
local intermediate maxima.
Pr ¼ 0:015 and Pr ¼ 0:7 fluids. On the other hand, for high Pr
Later, Basak et al. [98] investigated the indirect heat recovery
(Pr ¼ 1000) fluids, the multiple circulations disappear and heatli-
through the entrapped triangular enclosures involving material
nes are found to be dense near the bottom portion of the inclined
processing applications. The parametric study was performed for
walls within the lower triangular cavity (Fig. 6(b)) depicting larger
a wide range of fluids ðPr ¼ 0:015
1000Þ to analyze the heat
heat transfer rate along that zone. Overall, the optimum heat trans-
transfer process. At the low Ra (Ra ¼ 103 ), heat transfer was mostly
fer rate was observed for large Pr fluids (Pr ¼ 1000) in the lower
conduction dominant especially for Pr ¼ 0:015. As Ra increases to
triangular cavity and for all Pr fluid ðPr ¼ 0:015
1000Þ in the
104 , the secondary circulation cells occur in the lower triangle upper triangular cavity.
and the primary circulation cells are found to be slightly distorted Analysis of the irreversibility based on the entropy generation
due to the the onset of convection. At the high Ra (Ra ¼ 105 ), the [74,75] within triangular cavities have been carried out in the past
magnitude of streamfunctions and heatfunctions are found to be few years. Varol et al. [74] carried out the numerical study on free
intense and that further depicts the strong dominance of convec- convection in an air filled (Pr ¼ 0:71) isosceles triangular enclosure
tion heat transfer process (Fig. 6(a)). As Pr increases to 0:7, the fluid partially heated from the below and cooled from the sloping walls.

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16 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

The momentum and energy balance equations (Eqs. (6a) and (6b))
associated with the entropy generation equation (Eq. (39b)) are
solved using the finite difference method. The effect of various gov-
erning parameters such as the Rayleigh number, length of heater,
location of heater and inclination angle of triangle have been stud-
ied in details. Note that, the isotherms were largely compressed
towards the left inclined wall and bottom wall, depicting large
temperature gradients in those regions (Fig. 7(a–c)). It is also
observed that the conduction mode of heat transfer is effective
for small values of the inclination angle of the sloping wall due
to the short distance between the hot and cold walls. At the high
Ra (Ra P 105 ), the multiple fluid circulation cells and plume type
temperature distributions were formed due to the strong convec-
tion (Fig. 7(b and c)). The length of the heater was also found to
be more effective at higher values of inclination angles of the slop-
ing wall due to the dominance of convection. Also, the entropy
generation due to the fluid friction was found to increase with Ra
and it was found in the regions with high velocity gradients. It
may be noted that the location of heaters play significant role in
the entropy generation due to the fluid friction along the side
walls. It was observed that the central positioning of the heaters
along the bottom wall results in the formation of a large fluid cir-
culation cells in the right half whereas the small fluid circulation
cell is observed along the left half of the triangular enclosure.
Therefore, the zones with the large entropy generation due to the
fluid friction are observed along the middle portion of the right
wall, lower half of the left wall and middle portion of the bottom
wall. As the heaters are shifted towards the right corner of the bot-
tom wall, the large primary fluid circulation cell occupies almost
the entire enclosure and consequently, the entropy generation

Fig. 7. Streamfunction (w), isotherm (h), entropy generation due to heat transfer (Sh ) and entropy generation due to fluid friction (Sw ) for sloping wall inclination angle of
0
cavity, b ¼ 60 , dimensionless location of heater, c0 ¼ c=L ¼ 0:25, dimensionless length of the heater, l ¼ l=L ¼ 0:50 for various Rayleigh numbers (a) Ra ¼ 104 , (b) Ra ¼ 105
and (c) Ra ¼ 8:8  105 at Pr ¼ 0:71 [74]. (figure is reproduced from Varol et al. [74] with permission from Elsevier).

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Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
zones are shifted towards the upper left and right walls of the tri-
angular enclosure. Note that, the entropy generation due to the
heat transfer is found to be maximum near the edges of the heater,
due to large heat flux in those regions. Overall, it was concluded
that, the entropy generation depends largely on the sloping wall
inclination angle and thus the sloping wall angle can be used as
a parameter to control the heat transfer, energy saving and entropy
generation.
Recently, Basak et al. [75] studied the role of the entropy gener-
ation within the right angled triangular enclosure during natural
convection. Four different heating strategies (case 1: isothermal
hot left wall and isothermal cold right wall, case 2: linearly heated
left wall and isothermal cold right wall, case 3: isothermal cold left
wall and isothermal hot right wall, case 4: isothermal cold left wall
and linearly heated right wall) were considered in their numerical
study (Eqs. (3a)–(3d) and (39a)). Computations were carried out
for a wide range of Rayleigh numbers (Ra ¼ 103
105 ) during the
thermal processing of various fluids (Pr ¼ 0:025 - 1000) at various
top angles (u ¼ 15 and 45 ). Note that, the isotherms and stream-
functions observed for the present work are qualitatively similar
(Fig. 6(a and b)) to the earlier works [92,93]. At the low Rayleigh
number (Ra ¼ 103 ), the heat transfer is primarily due to conduction
and Stotal (Eq. (39a)) is found to be higher for the inclination angle,
/ ¼ 15 for all Pr due to high Sh;total and that is further due to the
high thermal gradient. As Ra increases to 105 , the fluid flow as well
as thermal energy transport is intensified due to the enhanced con-
vection. Consequently, the maximum value of the entropy genera-
tion due to the fluid friction (Sw;max ) also increases for all u’s. It was
found that the maximum value of the entropy generation due to
the heat transfer (Sh;max ) occurs near the vertex of the enclosures
for the cases 1 and 3, near the corner between the left wall and bot-
tom wall for the case 2 and near the lower portion of the right wall
for the case 4. On the other hand, the maximum value of the
entropy generation due to the fluid flow (Sw;max ) occurs near the
side walls for all the cases depicting the presence of high velocity
gradients in those regions. Finally, it was concluded that, the trian-
gular enclosure with the top angle, / ¼ 15 gives the high average
heat transfer rate and minimum entropy generation for all the flu-
ids at Ra ¼ 105 .
3.2. Porous media
A number of studies on natural convection in porous triangular
enclosures [48,99–103] have been carried out by the earlier inves-
tigators. Varol et al. [48] studied the effect of adiabatic thin fin on
buoyancy driven convection and fluid flow in a right angled trian-
gular enclosure filled with the porous media. The vertical wall of
the enclosure was insulated while both the hot bottom wall and
the cold inclined walls were kept at isothermal temperatures.
The Darcy’s model (Eqs. (14a)–(14c)) was used to define the
governing equations and the model was solved using the finite
difference technique. The studies were carried out by varying
the thin fin position (0:2
0:6), height-base aspect ratio of the
triangular enclosure (A ¼ 0:25
1), Darcy–Rayleigh number
(RaD ¼ Ra  Da ¼ 100
1000) and dimensionless height of the fin
(h ¼ 0:1
0:4). It is observed that, the isotherms on the right side
of the fin show a stratified flow at the convection dominant regime
(at the high RaD ) (Figure not shown). However, the presence of the
adiabatic fin causes the lower heat transfer at the left part of the fin
compared to the right part and the fin behaves as a curtain
between the hot and cold walls at the high RaD . Note that, the mul-
tiple fluid circulation cells are formed within the right angled trian-
gular enclosure when the adiabatic fin is located in the left half of
the bottom wall. It is interesting to observe that, changing the fin
position from the left half to the right half along the bottom wall
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17
results in the formation of a large flow circulation cell encompass-
ing the entire left half whereas the small fluid circulation cells are
confined near the right corners of the triangular enclosure (Fig-
ure not shown). Also, changing the fin position results in the lesser
distortion of isotherms near the central core whereas the strong
periodic behavior of isotherms are observed near the right corner
of the triangular enclosure (Figure not shown). As the fin length
increases, the enlargement of the primary circulation cell in the left
half occurs. However the qualitative feature of the multiple circu-
lation cells in the right half does not vary with the fin length. It was
reported that the average Nusselt number is an increasing function
of Darcy–Rayleigh number (RaD ), but the average Nusselt number
was observed to be constant at very small RaD due to the domi-
nance of the quasi-conductive heat transfer regime. Also, both
the average and local Nusselt numbers were found to decrease
with the aspect ratio.
Varol et al. [99] also performed the numerical tests to analyze
natural convection in porous right angled triangular enclosures
with various sets of temperature boundary conditions on the ver-
tical, bottom, and inclined walls, (i) case 1: insulated vertical wall,
hot bottom wall and cold hypotenuse, (ii) case 2: insulated vertical
wall, cold bottom wall and hot hypotenuse, (iii) case 3: hot vertical
wall, insulated bottom wall and cold hypotenuse, (iv) case 4: cold
vertical wall, insulated bottom wall and hot hypotenuse, (v) case 5:
cold vertical wall, hot bottom wall and insulated hypotenuse, and
(vi) case 6: hot vertical wall, cold bottom wall and insulated hypo-
tenuse. The aspect ratio (0:25
2) and Darcy–Rayleigh number
(RaD ¼ 100
1000) were varied in order to study the flow and
temperature distributions within the triangular enclosure. The
solutions of the governing equations (Darcy model) (Eqs. (14a)–
(14c)) and linear algebraic equations were carried out using the
central difference and the successive under relaxation method
(SUR), respectively. At the high RaD , it is interesting to observe that,
multiple vortices occur for the case with the cold hypotenuse wall,
hot bottom wall and insulated vertical wall (case 1). This may be
due to the dominance of buoyancy forces and the larger slope of
the inclined wall, which results in the rapid development of the
multiple circulation cells, even at the corner regions. Also, the
wavy and distorted isotherms are seen due to the intense convec-
tion at the higher RaD . However, at the low RaD , the formation of a
large single circulation cell takes place almost for all the test cases.
It was found that the local heat transfer rate is an increasing func-
tion of RaD for all the cases. Also, the effect of the aspect ratio on
the local heat transfer rate strongly depends on the thermal
boundary conditions.
Further, Varol et al. [100] presented the comprehensive analysis
on the effect of natural convection, due to various inclination
angles (0 to 360 ) of a porous triangular enclosure relative to
the gravity, using the Darcy model (governing Eqs. as given in
(14a)–(14c) are modified for the inclined cavity). The vertical wall
of the inverted right angled triangular cavity was hot and horizon-
tal top wall was cold with the adiabatic hypotenuse. The heat
transfer rate was observed to increase with Darcy–Rayleigh num-
ber (RaD ) for all values of the inclination angle. It was found that
the maximum and minimum values of the average Nusselt number
at the hot wall occur for the inclination angles 330 and 210 ,
respectively. In addition, for the inclination angle of 210 , the
isothermal walls resulted in the streamline cells to circulate sepa-
rately in the triangular enclosure, without mixing and thus, the
fluid flow was found to be stable. However, it was also found that,
for inclination angles within 0
90 and RaD > 1000, the fluid
flow field becomes unstable and consequently, the high mixing
occurs in the triangular enclosure. Isotherms are also found to be
distorted for the inclination angles within 0
90 at RaD > 1000.
However, for the inclination angles greater than 90 , the thermal
mixing is found to be lesser in a large portion of the enclosures.
18 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
Overall, it was concluded that the inclination angle can be consid-
ered as a control parameter for the heat transfer and flow field
especially at the high RaD numbers.
Basak et al. [101] studied the effect of the uniform and
non-uniform heating of the bottom wall on natural convection in
a porous isosceles triangular cavity using the Darcy–Brinkman
model (Eqs. (19a)–(19d)). The governing parameters are consid-
ered as Darcy number (10
5 6 Da 6 10
3 ), Rayleigh number
(103 6 Ra 6 106 ) and Prandtl number (0:026 6 Pr 6 1000). It was
found that at the low Da (Da ¼ 10
5 ), the heat transfer is mainly
due to conduction irrespective of Ra and Pr. Similar to the previous
study [93], at the onset of convection dominant mode, isotherms
are strongly compressed towards the bottom wall and the com-
pression is found to be stronger for the uniform heating case. At
the high Ra, the compression of isotherms near the corners of the
bottom wall also results in the multiple circulation cells for
Da ¼ 10
3 and Pr ¼ 0:026. Similar to the earlier study [93], the
streamfunction contours are observed to be circular in shape at
the low Pr (Pr ¼ 0:026) whereas at the high Pr (Pr ¼ 1000), they
resemble the shape of the cavity. Finally, it was concluded that
the average heat transfer rate is an increasing function of Da and
average Nusselt number follows the power law variations with
Ra for various Da and Pr involving the convection dominant
regime.
Oztop et al. [102] examined the effects of the density variation
and aspect ratio on natural convection in right angled triangular
porous enclosure for the isothermally hot bottom wall, cold verti-
cal wall and well insulated hypotenuse. The Darcy model based
Eqs. (9) and (11) and the Non-Boussinesq model based momentum
equations are solved using the finite difference method. The
calculations were performed for various Darcy–Rayleigh numbers
(RaD ¼ Ra  Da) (50 6 RaD 6 1000) based on the Non-Boussinesq
models and height-base aspect ratio ð0:25 6 A 6 1:0Þ. It was found
that the multiple circulation cells are formed at all RaD due to the
effect of the density inversion in a porous triangular enclosure. Iso-
therms also deviate from their directions due to the effect of the
high flow velocity. Note that, as RaD increases, the S-shaped iso-
therms were formed and consequently the distortion occurs in iso-
therms at the high RaD . In addition, the overall heat transfer rates
become identical for all the aspect ratios (A) at the high Darcy–Ray-
leigh number (RaD ¼ 1200).
Varol [103] reported the effect of the conducting body on natu-
ral convection in the porous right angled triangular enclosure with
the hot bottom wall, cold hypotenuse and insulated vertical wall
using the Darcy model (Eqs. (14a)–(14c)). The center of the con-
ducting body was located onto the center of the gravity of the
right-angled triangular cavity. The numerical studies were carried
out by varying the aspect ratio of the conducting body at various
values of RaD (100
1000). The thermal conductivity ratio is
assumed as unity since the thermal conductivity of fluid and solid
are equal. At the low RaD (RaD ¼ 100), two fluid circulation cells
were observed near the right bottom corner of the triangle and
the top of the square body. Note that, the flow strength is stronger
near the right bottom corners due to a high temperature difference
between the hot and cold surfaces. At the highest value of the
Darcy–Rayleigh number (RaD ), multiple circulation cells were
observed and the isotherms were highly distorted around the solid
object. It is also interesting to observe that the change in the width
and height of the solid object drastically influenced the fluid flow
pattern within the enclosure. However, the multiple circulation
cells were observed for almost all the cases considered, at the high
RaD (RaD ¼ 500), depicting the dominance of convection. The heat
transfer rate was observed to increase with the thermal conductiv-
ity of the body and RaD . Note that, the heat transfer rate was
observed to be almost constant throughout the regime for the high
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Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
values of thermal conductivity. Finally, it was concluded that, the
position of the conducting body within the enclosure has signifi-
cant effect on the heat transfer and flow behavior compared to
the thickness of the body especially at the high RaD .
A few studies on natural convection in the porous media filled
triangular enclosures based on the heatline approach have been
performed by Varol et al. [104] and Basak and coauthors [105–
107]. Varol et al. [104] analyzed the heat flow in a porous right
angled triangular enclosure via the heatline method (Eq. (36)).
The Darcy model based momentum and energy balance equations
(Eqs. (14a)–(14c) and Eq. (36)) are solved by the finite difference
technique. Three different thermal boundary conditions were
applied for the vertical and inclined walls (case 1: non-uniform
heating of the bottom wall with the cold inclined and vertical walls,
case 2: non-uniform heating of the bottom wall with the cold
inclined wall and adiabatic vertical wall, case 3: non-uniform heat-
ing of the bottom wall with the cold vertical wall and insulated
inclined wall). The numerical studies were carried out for the vari-
ous values of the Darcy–Rayleigh number (RaD ¼ 100
1000) and
aspect ratio (0:25 6 A 6 1). Due to the maximum heating near the
central zone of the bottom wall, the fluid rises from the middle por-
tion of the bottom wall and flows down along the side walls (Fig. 8
(a–d)). Note that, for the case 1, the size and intensity of the fluid
circulation in the left half is greater than the one on the right half
due to the large space available for the fluid movement in the left
half (Fig. 8(a–d)). For the cases 2 and 3, the primary fluid circulation
cell occupies nearly the entire cavity with small secondary cells at
the bottom corner regions (Figures not shown). As RaD increases
to 1000, the primary fluid circulation cell on the left half spreads
largely towards the top half and compresses the secondary fluid cir-
culation cell to the bottom right corners of the enclosure due to the
intense convection in the case 1 (Fig. 8(a–d)). In addition, the
strength of the fluid circulation cells largely increases for all the
cases due to the enhancement of buoyancy forces. Isotherm con-
tours represent the plume type distributions in the case 1 (Fig. 8
(a–d)). Due to the presence of the inclined wall, the isotherms are
observed to have skewness towards the left vertical wall of the
enclosure. The magnitude of the heatfunction increases with
Darcy–Rayleigh number (RaD ) as seen from the heatline contours
(Figures not shown). This shows the heat transfer rate from the bot-
tom wall increases with RaD . Further, it was seen that the decrease
in the aspect ratio (A) led to the formation of Benard cells and the
isotherms show the wavy variation for the case 1 (Fig. 8(a–d)). Four
vortices were also observed based on the heatfunction contours. It
was found that the qualitative distributions of streamlines, iso-
therms and heatlines for the case 2 are similar to the case 1 for
the cavity aspect ratio, A ¼ 0:5. In contrast to the cases 1 and 2,
Benard cells did not form for the case 3 at the low aspect ratio
(A ¼ 0:25). Finally, the average heat transfer rate was found to be
an increasing function of Darcy–Rayleigh number (RaD ), irrespec-
tive of the cases. Also, the maximum average heat transfer rate
was observed for the case 3 type boundary condition.
Basak et al. [105] analyzed the natural convection (Eqs. (19a)–
(19d)) in an inverted porous triangular cavity with the hot inclined
walls and cold top wall. The effects of Prandtl numbers
(Pr ¼ 0:015
1000) and Darcy numbers (Da ¼ 10
5
10
3 ) on
natural convection have been investigated in this study. Further,
Basak et al. [106] studied the heat recovery and heat transfer rates
in entrapped porous triangular cavities. Also, Basak and coauthors
[107] carried out the numerical studies on heat distribution and
thermal mixing during the steady laminar natural convective flow
within a porous right-angled enclosure. They examined the influ-
ence of various thermal boundary conditions and inclination
angles on the evaluation of complex heat flow patterns and
reported that the isothermal heating of walls enhances the heat
 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 19

Fig. 8. Streamfunction (w), isotherm (h) and heatfunction (P) at RaD ¼ 1000 for various aspect ratios, A (a) A ¼ 1:0, (b) A ¼ 0:75, (c) A ¼ 0:50 and (d) A ¼ 0:25 for case 1 (cold
vertical and inclined walls with non-uniformly heated bottom wall) at Pr ¼ 0:71 [104]. (figures are reproduced from Varol et al. [104] with permission from Elsevier).

distribution and thermal mixing. Common to all the studies, it was
observed that, at the small Darcy number (Da ¼ 10
5 ), the magni-
tudes of streamfunction are small and the heatlines are orthogonal
to the isotherms, indicating the conduction dominant heat transfer.
As Da increases to 10
4 , convection is initiated within the enclo-
sures. Dense heatlines are observed near the bottom portion of
the inclined wall for Da ¼ 10
4 . As Da increases to 10
3 , the strong
influence of convection is observed based on the higher strength of
the streamfunctions and heatfunctions. As Pr increases from 0:015
to 1000, the intensity of the dense heatlines increases. The
enhanced thermal mixing occurs near the core within the triangle
for the fluids with higher Pr as the heat transfer at the core is dom-
inated by convection as seen from the heatlines. The overall heat
transfer rate at the active walls remains almost invariant at the
low Da due to the conductive heat transfer irrespective of Ra and
Pr. However the overall heat transfer rate shows increasing trend
at the high Da.
The number of studies on the entropy generation during natural
convection in triangular enclosures filled with the fluid-saturated
porous media is very limited. Varol et al. [83] numerically studied
the entropy generation during natural convection in an isosceles
inverted triangular enclosure with various inclination angles filled
with the fluid-saturated porous medium. The inclined walls (equal
length) of the triangular enclosure were maintained adiabatic
whereas the top wall was non-uniformly heated. The finite differ-
ence formulation was used for the dimensionless governing equa-
tions [basic governing equations as given in Eqs. (14a)–(14c) are
modified for the inclined cavity], and entropy generation equations
(Eq. (41b)) for the present problem. Computations were performed
for various Darcy–Rayleigh numbers (RaD ¼ Ra  Da ¼ 102
103 )

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20 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

and inclination angles (/ ¼ 0
180 ). As the top wall is sinu-
soidally heated, the middle portion of the top wall receives maxi-
mum heat. Thus, the fluid near those regions rotates in the
opposite direction towards the side walls and forms two symmetric
circulation cells for / ¼ 0 and 180 . On the other hand, for / ¼ 45
and 135 , the asymmetric pair and for / ¼ 90 , multiple circulation
cells are observed. Note that, the active zones of the fluid friction
irreversibilities occur where the fluid circulation cells undergo fric-
tion with the walls of the enclosure (Fig. 9(a–d)). On the other hand,
the maximum entropy generation due to the heat transfer takes
place near the non-isothermally heated wall, due to high thermal
gradients in those regions (Fig. 9(a–d)). The intensity of the fluid
flow increases with RaD irrespective of / due to the enhanced con-
vection. Consequently, the heat transfer rate along with fluid fric-
tion and heat transfer irreversibilities also increase. It is
interesting to observe that, as RaD increases, the fluid friction irre-
versibility dominates over the heat transfer irreversibility for all /.
Note that, the minimum entropy generation due to the heat transfer
as well as the fluid friction occurs for / ¼ 180 at the high RaD .
Basak et al. [84] have analyzed the entropy generation due to nat-
ural convection (Eqs. (19a)–(19d) and Eq. (44)) in the right-angled
triangular enclosures saturated with the porous media for four dif-
ferent thermal boundary conditions (case 1: isothermal hot left wall
and isothermal cold right wall, case 2: linearly heated left wall and
isothermal cold right wall, case 3: isothermal cold left wall and
isothermal hot right wall, case 4: isothermal cold left wall and lin-
early heated right wall) similar to the earlier work [107]. The Galer-
kin finite element method has been used to solve the governing
equations (Eqs. (19a)–(19d)). In addition, the entropy generation
terms (Eq. (44)) have also been evaluated via finite element basis
functions. Analysis has been done for Pr ¼ 0:025 and Pr ¼ 1000 with
Da ¼ 10
5
10
3 involving two different top angles / ¼ 15 and
45 . It was found that, the maximum heat transfer irreversibility
(Sh;max ) is high near the vertex of the cavity for the case 1. On the other
hand, Sh;max was significant at the junction between the linearly
heated left wall and adiabatic bottom wall for the case 2 due to the
large thermal gradient. The fluid friction irreversibility (Sw ) was
found to be larger at the middle portions of the side walls for both
the cases 1 and 2 and the generation of entropy due to the fluid fric-
tion increases at the high Da (Da P 10
4 ) for all the inclination
angles. Note that, Sh;max and Sw;max were observed to be higher for
the case 1 compared to the case 2 for all the inclination angles and
Pr with Da ¼ 10
5
10
3 . The maximum heat transfer rates with
minimum total entropy generation and higher cup-mixing temper-
ature were obtained for / ¼ 15 at Da ¼ 10
3 irrespective of Pr. The
active zones of Sh and Sw for the cases 3 and 4 were similar to the cases
1 and 2, respectively. Similar to the cases 1–2, Sw increases for
Da P 10
4 for all / and the maximum values of Sh and Sw are larger
for the case 3 compared to the case 4 irrespective of Pr; / and Da.
The maximum heat transfer rate as well as minimum Stotal was found
for / ¼ 15 cavities at Da ¼ 10
3 for all Pr except at Pr ¼ 0:025 in the
case 3 where the total entropy generation is maximum for / ¼ 15
cavities. In addition, the cup mixing temperature was higher for

Fig. 9. Entropy generation due to fluid friction irreversibility (Sw ) and heat transfer irreversibility (Sh ) for adiabatic side walls with non uniformly heated top wall for Darcy–
Rayleigh number, RaD ¼ 500 for different inclination angles, (a) / ¼ 45 (b) / ¼ 90 , (c) / ¼ 135 , (d) / ¼ 180 [83]. (figure is reproduced from Varol et al. [83] with
permission from Elsevier).

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 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
/ ¼ 45 cavities compared with / ¼ 15 cavities in the case 3 at
Da ¼ 10
3 for all Pr.
3.3. Nanofluid
The numerical study on natural convection in a right triangular
enclosure filled with a water–CuO nanofluid, with a heat source on
its vertical wall was studied by Ghasemi and Aminossadati [63].
Their study was based on the effect of the solid volume fraction
(/), heat source location, Rayleigh number ðRaÞ, height-base aspect
ratio (A) and Brownian motion on the overall heat transfer rate. The
Brownian motion is incorporated into the governing equations
(Eqs. (27a)–(27d)) and they are solved by the control volume
method. In order to study the effect of Ra, comparative studies
were carried out for both nanofluids (water–CuO) and conven-
tional fluid (water). The isotherms and streamlines show similar
qualitative features for the clear fluid and nanofluid at various
Ra. The position of the heater plays the significant role on the heat
transfer enhancement. During the conductive mode of heat trans-
fer at the low Ra, the local heat transfer rate increases as the heater
moves upwards. At the high Ra (Ra ¼ 106 ), the convective cell
becomes weaker as the heater moves upwards and thus the heat
transfer rate decreases. It may be noted that, the local heat transfer
rate is significantly affected for different aspect ratios (A) for the
fixed position and length of the heater, Ra and solid volume frac-
tion. It was found that, the heat transfer rate decreases with the
aspect ratios at the low Ra whereas at the high Ra (Ra ¼ 105 ), an
increasing trend of heat transfer rate with the aspect ratio is
observed. It is worthwhile to mention that, when the Brownian
motion is incorporated, the solid volume fraction has diverse
effects on the heat transfer rate for various Ra. At the low Ra, the
heat transfer rate was observed to increase with the solid volume
fraction, whereas, at the high Ra, an optimum solid volume fraction
leads to a maximum heat transfer rate. Interestingly, the heat
transfer rate was found to increase with the solid volume fraction
for all Ra, when the Brownian motion was not considered.
Further, Aminossadati and Ghasemi [64] studied and compared
the buoyancy flow and heat transfer in a partially heated isosceles
triangular enclosure filled with Ethylene Glycol-Copper (Eg-Cu)
nanofluid and pure ethylene glycol. The modified Maxwell model
is used to determine the effective thermal conductivity of nano-
fluid ðkeff Þ (Eqs. (27a)–(27d)). The bottom wall was thermally insu-
lated while the two sides of the triangle were isothermally cold
and a heater was positioned on the bottom wall. Their study
focused on the effect of the heater location, Rayleigh number, apex
angle on the overall heat transfer rate of the cavity. It was observed
that the intensity of streamfunction is found to be higher for the
Ethylene Glycol-Copper nanofluid compared to the pure Ethylene
Glycol especially at the high Ra and consequently, isotherms were
found to be strongly compressed near the hot zones for the Ethy-
lene Glycol-Copper nanofluid case. The overall heat transfer rate
from the heat source increases with the solid volume fraction at
the high Ra due to the enhanced effective thermal conductivity
of nanofluid. It is also observed that the heater location plays a vital
role on the fluid behavior within the enclosure. In the case of the
shorter heat source length, the maximum heat transfer rates are
achieved for the lowest heat source height. On the other hand,
for the longer heat source lengths, the heat transfer rate decreases
initially and thereafter that increases as the height of the heater
increases. Finally it was concluded that, the heat transfer rates
obtained based on the modified Maxwell model are usually higher
than those obtained based on the original Maxwell model.
Rezaiguia et al. [108] examined natural convection in a tilted
isosceles triangular enclosure filled with the water–Cu nanofluid
combined with an heat source at the base wall. The left and right
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21
walls of the enclosure were maintained at the constant cold tem-
peratures, while the remaining parts of the bottom wall are insu-
lated. The SIMPLE algorithm was used to calculate the pressure
(governing equations (Eqs. (27a)–(27d)) are modified for the
inclined cavity) and the QUICK scheme was used for discretization
of the convection terms in the dimensionless momentum and
energy equations. The effect on thermal and fluid flow for various
Rayleigh number (104 6 Ra 6 106 ), heater length (0:2
0:8), solid
volume fraction, (0
0:06) and inclination angle (0
45 ) are
investigated similar to the earlier work [64]. Similar to the earlier
work [64], their result shows that the heat transfer rate increases
in the presence of nanoparticles especially at the low values of Ray-
leigh numbers (Ra). It is also interesting to observe that, the solid
volume fraction has the significant effect in the conduction domi-
nant regime (low Ra) in contrast to the convection regime (high
Ra). It is also found that, the temperature of the fluid in contact
with the heater is observed to be maximum at the high Ra for an
inclination angle, d ¼ 15 (critical angle).
4. Trapezoidal enclosures
4.1. Fluid media
A number of works have been carried out on natural convection
in trapezoidal enclosures. The numerical investigation on natural
convection was carried out within a partially divided trapezoidal
cavity by Moukalled and Darwish [109]. The dimensionless gov-
erning equations (Eqs. (3a)–(3d)) were solved using the control
volume method. Two different thermal boundary conditions were
considered, case 1: the hot left wall and cold right wall and case 2:
the hot right wall and cold left wall. The effects of various param-
eters such as Rayleigh number (Ra ¼ 103
106 ), Prandtl number
(Pr ¼ 0:7; 10 and 130), baffle height and baffle locations, on the
heat transfer rate were studied. It may also be noted that, the baffle
was located vertically on the bottom wall. At the high Ra
ðRa P 103 Þ, the isotherms are highly distorted and they are strati-
fied at the middle portion of the cavity due to the enhanced con-
vection. Further, the presence of the baffle on the bottom wall
results in the formation of two asymmetric fluid circulation cells
in the left and right sides of the baffle at Ra ¼ 103 . However, as
Ra increases to 105 , the two fluid circulation cells tend to merge
with each other, depicting large convective effects within the
trapezoidal enclosure (Fig. 10(i)(a–d)). In addition, the height of
the baffle also has a profound effect on the fluid flow behavior
and temperature distribution within the enclosure (Fig. 10(i)(a–
d)). It was observed that the large primary fluid circulation cell
breaks into two cells with the increase of the baffle height. For both
the cases 1 and 2, the total heat transfer rate increases with Ra due
to the intense convection at the high Ra for a fixed baffle height.
Finally, it was observed that the presence of the baffle decreases
the overall heat transfer rate in the trapezoidal cavity, irrespective
of the position and height of the baffle. The maximum decrease in
the heat transfer rate was found to occur for the baffle placed near
to the left wall, irrespective of the baffle height.
Moukalled and Darwish [110] further extended their study to
investigate the effects of the height and position of the baffle pro-
truding out from the inclined top wall, on the fluid flow and heat
transfer in a trapezoidal enclosure with the similar thermal bound-
ary conditions as mentioned in the earlier work [109]. The compu-
tations in their study were carried out for four Rayleigh numbers
(Ra ¼ 103
106 ) and three Prandtl numbers (Pr ¼ 0:7; 10 and
130). It is interesting to observe that the inclusion of baffles from
the top wall, results in the formation of two clockwise rotating vor-
tices, at the low Ra (Fig. 10(ii)(a)). As Ra increases, the interaction
22 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Fig. 10. Streamfunction (w) and isotherm (h) for (i) Ra ¼ 105 , baffle location, Lb ¼ L=3 and various baffle heights (Hb ) [L is the width of the cavity; H is the height of the short
vertical wall; H is the height of the cavity at the location of baffle] (a) no baffle (b) Hb ¼ H =3 (c) Hb ¼ 2H =3 (d) Hb ¼ H for Pr ¼ 0:7 [109] (ii) Lb ¼ L=3 and Hb ¼ 2H =3 at
various Rayleigh numbers, (a) Ra ¼ 103 , (b) Ra ¼ 104 , (c) Ra ¼ 105 and (d) Ra ¼ 106 for Pr ¼ 0:7 [110]. (figures are reproduced from Moukalled and Darwish [109,110] with
permission from Taylor & Francis).

between the fluid circulation vortices increases and the two vor-
tices gradually merge with each other (Fig. 10(ii)(b–d)). Moreover,
the eye of the vortex in the right-hand portion of the domain
moves upward and to the left in the lower right portion of the
enclosure with the gradual increase of Ra (Fig. 10(ii)(b–d)). Further,
the increase in the height of the baffle was found to lead to the sep-
aration of the large fluid circulation cell into two circulations as
seen in the previous work (Fig. 10(i)(a–d)). Similar to the earlier
case [109], it was found that the overall heat transfer rate in the
trapezoidal cavity is greatly reduced in the presence of the baffle,
irrespective of the size and position of the baffle.
Arici and Sahin [111] studied the effect of the divider on natural
convection in a partially divided trapezoidal enclosure with the
summer (the left vertical and top inclined walls are hot, bottom
wall is cold and right vertical wall is adiabatic) and winter (the left
vertical and top inclined walls are cold, bottom wall is hot and the
right vertical wall is adiabatic) boundary conditions. The finite vol-
ume method was used to solve the governing equations (Eqs. (3a)–
(3d)). A horizontal divider was included in such a way that the
entire domain is divided into a square region and a right triangular
region. Three different configurations were considered based on
the position of the divider, (i) configuration 0: no divider (ii) con-
figuration I: the divider attached to the insulated vertical wall
and (iii) configuration II: the divider attached to the point of inter-
section between the vertical and inclined walls. Their study
demonstrated that there was no significant influence of the divider
on the temperature distribution and consequently on the heat
transfer rates during the summer boundary conditions for
Ra ¼ 104
107 . In contrast, the heat transfer rate is reduced due
to the presence of the divider during the winter boundary condi-
tions. It was observed that, as the horizontal divider was placed
to oppose buoyancy, the flow strength became much weaker and
there was a formation of two separate uniform temperature zones
for configuration I for the winter boundary conditions. On the other
hand, the buoyancy-assisting effect was observed and the uniform
temperature field was observed within the whole enclosure for the
configuration II. The overall heat transfer rate was found to be
higher for the configuration 0 (without baffle) compared to the
configurations I and II (with baffle). Finally, it was found that, the
heat loss from the enclosure is less for the configuration I. On the
other hand, in order to maintain the uniform temperature distribu-
tion within the enclosure, the configuration II is ideal.
Silva et al. [112] studied the effect of the inclination angle of the
top wall on the heat transfer rate in a trapezoidal cavity with two
baffles placed on the cavity’s horizontal surface. The element based
finite volume method has been used to numerically solve the
nondimensional governing equations (Eqs. (1a)–(1d)). The effect
of three inclination angles of the upper surface as well as the effect
of the Rayleigh number (Ra), Prandtl number (Pr), and baffle’s
height (Hb ) on the streamfunctions, temperature profiles, and local
and average Nusselt numbers has been numerically analyzed and
illustrated. At the low Ra, three internal vortices exist within the

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 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 23

cavity for all the inclination angles (Fig. 11(i)). It is also interesting
to observe that the isotherms are parallel lines at the low Ra [see
Fig. 11(i)]. It may be noted that, the temperature varies almost lin-
early within the cavity, due to the conduction dominant heat trans-
fer at the low Ra (Fig. 11(i)). It may also be noted that the
temperature gradient near to the active walls increases smoothly
with the inclination angle of the top surface. However, the qualita-
tive trends of isotherms remain identical throughout the enclo-
sures, irrespective of the inclination angles. The three internal
vortices are merged into a single cell at the high Ra (Ra ¼ 106 )
for all the inclination angles (Fig. 11(ii)). It is also interesting to
observe that, the isotherms are more distorted and the convection
dominant heat transfer occurs at the high Ra. At Ra ¼ 106 , the ther-
mal stratification is found near to the lower and upper surfaces of
the cavity. It is also found that, the temperature and velocity gra-
dients within the enclosure decrease with the height of the baffles.
Finally, it was concluded that for a fixed height of baffles, the over-
all heat transfer rate increases with the inclination angle.
The investigation on the fluid and heat flow patterns in the
presence of natural convection in the trapezoidal enclosure with
various thermal boundary conditions has been extensively per-
formed by Basak and co-workers [69,113,114]. Natural convection
in trapezoidal enclosures for the uniformly heated bottom wall,
linearly heated vertical wall(s) (case 1) and linearly heated left wall
or the isothermally cold right wall (case 2) in the presence of the
insulated top wall have been investigated numerically by Basak
et al. [113]. The penalty finite element method has been used to
solve the velocity and thermal fields (Eqs. (3a)–(3d)). Parametric
studies for the wide range of Rayleigh numbers (Ra ¼ 103
105 )
and Prandtl numbers (Pr ¼ 0:7
1000) with various tilt angles of
the side walls (/ ¼ 45
0 ) have been performed. At the low Pr
(Pr ¼ 0:7
10) and high Ra (Ra ¼ 105 ), the secondary circulations
are observed near the bottom corners for / ¼ 0 compared to
/ ¼ 30 and 45 for the case 1. As Pr increases from 0:7 to 1000,
fluid tends to take the shape of the container and the streamlines
near the boundary of the cavity are parallel to the side walls

Fig. 11. Streamfunction (w) and isotherm (h) for Prandtl number Pr ¼ 0:7, baffle height (Hb ¼ HI =3; HI is the height of the enclosure where the baffle is located) at different
inclination angles (a) of the top wall of the cavity for Rayleigh number, (i) Ra ¼ 103 [(a) a ¼ 10 , (b) a ¼ 15 and (c) a ¼ 20 ] and (ii) Ra ¼ 106 [(a) a ¼ 10 , (b) a ¼ 15 and (c)
a ¼ 20 ] [112]. (figures are reproduced from Silva et al. [112] with permission from Elsevier).

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Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
24 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
signifying the intense convection within the cavity. The isotherms
along the side walls were observed to be highly compressed and
the thickness of the thermal boundary layer was reduced at
Pr ¼ 1000 and Ra ¼ 105 for the case 1. In contrast to the case 1,
stronger secondary circulations were observed near the top portion
of the left wall for the case 2 involving all the inclination angles. It
was found that, the secondary circulations were found to be stron-
ger for / ¼ 30 and 45 and the secondary circulations were even
stronger at the higher Pr (Pr ¼ 1000) for the case 2. Since the ther-
mal gradient was high near the cold right wall, isotherms were lar-
gely compressed towards the right wall compared to the left wall
for the case 2. Multiple circulation cells for the square enclosure
plays the important role for the non-monotonic trend of the aver-
age Nusselt numbers profiles for the case 2. The overall heat trans-
fer rate at the bottom wall was found to be significantly larger for
the case 2 compared to the case 1, irrespective of Pr for all the incli-
nation angles. It was also observed that the average heat transfer
rate at the left wall was significantly high for the square enclosure
compared to the trapezoidal enclosures for Ra P 104 .
Basak and co-workers [69] carried out the heatline analysis
within a trapezoidal enclosure for the uniformly and non-
uniformly heated bottom wall, insulated top wall and cold side
walls. It is found that at the low Pr and high Ra, the symmetric mul-
tiple circulations cells appear near the top corners for u ¼ 30 and
45 for the case with the uniformly heated bottom wall and cold
side walls [69]. On the other hand, the weak secondary circulation
are observed near the center of the side walls for the square cavity.
The shape of heatlines near the core is identical with the streamli-
nes, indicating the convection dominant heat transfer at Ra ¼ 105 .
Due to the enhanced buoyancy convection at the high Ra, the large
amount of heat flow occurs from the bottom wall to the top portion
of the vertical wall resulting in a large isothermal regime at the top
portion of the cavity for u ¼ 45 and 30 . At Pr ¼ 0:7 and 1000, the
multiple fluid and heat circulation cells disappear and the strength
of convective cells is increased. It is also found that, due to the les-
ser heating effects, the intensities of the streamfunction and heat-
function are observed to be considerably lower for the non-
uniform bottom wall heating case [69]. The average heat transfer
rate at the bottom wall was found to be higher for the square cav-
ity (u ¼ 0 ) with the uniformly heating bottom wall whereas in the
case of the non-uniformly heated bottom wall, the average heat
transfer rate is nearly identical for all the tilt angles, irrespective
of Pr at the high Ra. Also, the magnitudes of average Nusselt num-
bers are observed to be higher for the uniform heating cases com-
pared to the non-uniform heating cases [69].
Basak et al. [114] extended the heatline analysis for natural con-
vection in the trapezoidal enclosure involving the inclination
angles (the angle between the right wall and X-axis),
/ ¼ 45
60 (trapezoidal enclosures) and 90 (square enclosure)
with similar thermal boundary conditions as mentioned in the ear-
lier work [113]. Analysis was carried out for Rayleigh numbers,
Ra ¼ 103
105 and Prandtl numbers Pr ¼ 0:015
1000. The sym-
metric and end to end heatlines were observed for the case 1 (lin-
early heated left and right walls). The compression of isotherms
with higher magnitudes near the side walls is prominent for the
trapezoidal enclosures at the higher Ra (Ra ¼ 105 ). It may be noted
that, the intensity of heatline circulation cell was lower for the
square cavity compared to the trapezoidal cavities irrespective of
Pr and Ra. In the case of the linearly heated left wall and cold right
wall (case 2), the compression of isotherms is observed along the
bottom and right walls due to the larger intensity of primary heat-
line circulations near the right wall. Also, the compression of iso-
therms leads to the stronger thermal boundary layer along the
right wall (case 2). Similar to the previous work [113], the average
heat transfer rate was found to be maximum for the square enclo-
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Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
sure compared to the trapezoidal enclosures, in both the cases 1
and 2.
Till date, limited studies have been carried out on the entropy
generation via natural convection in trapezoidal cavities. Basak
et al. [115] analyzed the entropy generation during natural convec-
tion (Eqs. (3a)–(3d) and Eq. (39a)) in a trapezoidal cavity with var-
ious inclination angles (u ¼ 45
90 ) for thermal processing of
various fluids (Pr ¼ 0:015
1000) over a wide range of Rayleigh
numbers (Ra ¼ 103
105 ) for the isothermal (case 1) and non-
isothermal (case 2) heating at the bottom wall. It is observed that,
at Ra ¼ 103 , the heat transfer rate in the cavity is primarily due to
conduction and the total entropy generation (Stotal ) is higher for the
case 1, irrespective of Pr and u. Common to all Pr and u, the total
entropy generation within the cavity is highly influenced by the
heat transfer irreversibility (Sh ) which is also indicated by high val-
ues of Beav at the low Ra. As Ra increases to 105 , the enhanced con-
vection causes the large heat transport from the heat sources. As a
result, the entropy generation due to the fluid friction (Sw ) also
increases for all the inclination angles at Ra ¼ 105 for all Pr. The
active zones of Sh are found near the lower portions of the trape-
zoidal cavity due to the larger temperature gradient whereas the
active zones of Sw appear near the regions where the walls of the
enclosure are in direct contact with the adjacent circulation cells,
irrespective of Pr and the inclination angles. In addition, the fric-
tion between the circulation cells also contributes to the fluid fric-
tion irreversibilities. Note that, the active zones of the entropy
generation due to the fluid friction are mostly observed in the bot-
tom half of the side walls for the higher inclination angles
(u ¼ 45 ). On the other hand, the zones of fluid friction gradually
move upwards along the side walls for the lower inclination angles
(u ¼ 30 and 0 ), irrespective of Ra and Pr. However, the magni-
tudes of Sw between the circulation cells are comparatively lesser
than those obtained from Sw between the circulation cells and
the walls of the trapezoidal enclosure. The total entropy generation
is found to be an increasing function of Ra and Pr for both the
isothermal (case 1) and non-isothermal (case 2) heating cases.
Overall, it was concluded that the non-isothermal heating strategy
(case 2) is more energy efficient than the isothermal heating for all
the inclination angles.
Ramakrishna et al. [116] studied the natural convection flows
involving the entropy generation within trapezoidal cavities for
the isothermally hot left wall, cold right wall and adiabatic hori-
zontal walls. The governing equations as mentioned in the earlier
work [115] were solved using the finite element method and the
results have been presented in terms of the streamlines, heatlines,
isotherms, entropy generation due to the fluid friction, entropy
generation due to the heat transfer, average Bejan number, total
entropy generation and average Nusselt number. As seen in the
earlier studies for the hot and cold walls, the heat transfer within
the cavity is primarily due to conduction as seen from the low
magnitudes of the streamlines and heatlines at Ra ¼ 103 . As Ra
increases to 105 , the enhanced convection is observed based on lar-
ger magnitudes of the streamlines and heatlines. The maximum
values of the entropy generation due to the fluid friction (Sw;max )
and heat transfer (Sh;max ) are lower at Ra ¼ 103 and higher at
Ra ¼ 105 due to the enhanced fluid flow at the higher Ra, irrespec-
tive of the inclination angles and Pr. It is also found that Sh;max
occurs at the left edge of the bottom wall for the trapezoidal enclo-
sure whereas that occurs near the lower portion of the left wall and
the upper portion of the right wall for the square enclosure, irre-
spective of Pr and Ra. In addition, the fluid friction irreversibility
(Sw ) was found to contribute significantly to the Stotal especially
for the high Pr fluids. Overall, it was concluded that, the trapezoidal
cavity with u ¼ 60 is the optimal shape for the thermal processing
 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 25

of fluids with Pr ¼ 0:015 whereas the square cavity is the optimal
design for the thermal processing of the fluids with Pr ¼ 7:2 based
on the low values of the total entropy generation (Stotal ) and high
values of the average heat transfer rate at the hot left wall (Nul ).
4.2. Porous media
Baytas and Pop [117] carried out numerical investigations to
study natural convection in an inclined porous trapezoidal enclo-
sure with the cold top cylindrical wall, hot bottom cylindrical wall
and adiabatic non-parallel walls. The alternating Direction Implicit
(ADI) method was used to solve the polar form of the unsteady state
momentum (based on the Darcy model) and energy equation (Eqs.
(9)–(11)). The investigation was performed for various tilt angles
(/ ¼ 15
165 ) and Darcy–Rayleigh number, RaD ¼ 100
1000
(RaD ¼ Ra  Da). Similar to the earlier studies, it was observed that
the conduction-dominant heat transfer occurs at the low RaD , irre-
spective of the inclination angles. It is interesting to observe that
the multiple circulation cells occur at / ¼ 15 and 105
165
whereas the unicellular cells occur for 45 6 / 6 105 at
RaD ¼ 900 (Fig. 12). Consequently, the isotherms exhibit waviness
for the lower / values whereas the stratification of isotherms is
observed at / P 135 (Fig. 12). It was observed that the average
Nusselt number (Nus ) is an increasing function of RaD for all the
angles, / except / ¼ 15 and for / ¼ 15 case, Nus decreases with
RaD for 400 6 RaD 6 600. Also, it was found that Nus is maximum
for / ¼ 45 and minimum for / ¼ 165 at RaD ¼ 900.
Kumar and Kumar [118] studied the effect of natural convection
in a porous trapezoidal cavity for various inclination angles
(/ ¼ 65 ; 72 ; 78 and 85 ), Darcy–Rayleigh number
(RaD ¼ 25
250) and modified Grashof number, (Gr  ¼ 0
2). Dar-
cian (Eqs. (9)–(11)) and non-Darcian (Eqs. (15a) and (15b))
assumptions on the porous model are considered to construct
the momentum equations. The non-linear partial differential

Fig. 12. Isotherm (h) and streamfunction (w) for k ¼ 30 (k is the angle between the side walls), A ¼ 2 (A is the cavity aspect ratio) and Darcy–Rayleigh number, RaD ¼ 900
involving various tilt angles (/) [117]. (figure is reproduced from Baytas and Pop [117] with permission from Elsevier).

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26 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
equations (governing equations) are solved using the finite ele-
ment method (FEM) for various values of the flow and geometric
parameters involving both the Darcian and non-Darcian models.
Both the inclined walls of the trapezoidal enclosure were main-
tained at isothermal conditions whereas the horizontal walls were
maintained at adiabatic conditions. It is observed that the simulta-
neous isothermal heating of the left and right walls results in the
formation of a single fluid circulation cells. Note that, the intensity
of the fluid circulation increases with RaD , leading to the large
amount of thermal mixing near the central core of the trapezoidal
enclosure. In addition, large thermal gradients are observed along
the top portion of the right side wall, depicting the high heat trans-
fer rates near those regions. It is interesting to observe that the
inclination angle of the side walls of the trapezoidal enclosure also
influences the fluid flow and heat transfer rate within the trape-
zoidal enclosure. The average Nusselt number was also reported
to increase with RaD . Further, the average Nusselt number was also
found to increase with the inclination angle of the walls. It was
found that, the overall heat transfer rate is higher for the non-
Darcian model (Darcy–Forchheimer model) compared to the Dar-
cian model (Gr  ¼ 0) at the identical RaD and /.
Varol et al. [32] carried out the numerical study to investigate
the steady free convection flow in a two-dimensional porous
right-angle trapezoidal enclosure with the hot left vertical wall,
partially cold inclined wall and insulated horizontal walls. The
Darcy model based momentum equations along with the energy
equation (Eqs. (14a)–(14c)) were solved by using the finite differ-
ence method. Three cases were considered in this study based on
the position of the cold zone along the inclined wall: (i) case 1:
the cold zone is located at the upper half of the inclined wall (adja-
cent to the top wall), (ii) case 2: the cold zone is located in the mid-
dle of the inclined wall and (iii) case 3: the cold zone is located at
the bottom half of the inclined wall (adjacent to the bottom
wall). Note that, the portions other than the cold section on the
inclined wall are maintained at adiabatic conditions. Computations
were carried out for various Darcy–Rayleigh numbers
(100 6 RaD 6 1000) and aspect ratios (0:25 6 A 6 0:75). Due to
the heating of the left vertical wall and simultaneous partial cool-
ing of the inclined wall, the fluid within the trapezoidal enclosure
forms a large circulation cell in the clockwise direction. It is inter-
esting to observe that the magnitude of the fluid circulation cell
increases with RaD and that gradually takes the shape of the enclo-
sure at the high RaD . It is worthwhile to mention that the fluid flow
patterns are observed to be dissimilar for three different cases.
Note that, the eye of the primary vortex tends to shift downward
with the gradual shifting of the cooler towards the bottom por-
tions, along the right inclined wall. The isotherms also display
interesting features for all the cases. It is observed that, the posi-
tioning of the cooler near the top portion of the inclined wall,
results in the occurrence of large cold zones in the bottom portion
of the trapezoidal enclosure. Similarly, the presence of the cooler
near the bottom portions of the inclined wall results in the forma-
tion of cold spots in the upper zone of the trapezoidal enclosure. In
addition, the variation of the aspect ratio of the trapezoidal enclo-
sures is found to have significant effect on the fluid flow behavior
and the temperature distribution within the enclosure. Overall, it
was also concluded that Nusselt number (Nu) and the strength of
fluid flow increase with RaD . Also, both the local and mean Nusselt
numbers were found to be the lower for the case 3 compared to the
cases 1 and 2.
Recently, Varol [119] analyzed the heat transfer and fluid flow
within two entrapped porous trapezoidal cavities involving the
cold inclined walls and hot horizontal walls. The Darcy model
based governing equations (Eqs. (14a)–(14c)) were solved using
the finite difference method for various aspect ratios of two
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Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
entrapped trapezoidal cavities, Darcy–Rayleigh number ðRaD Þ and
the thermal conductivity ratio between the middle horizontal wall
and fluid medium. Due to the isothermal heating of the bottom
wall, fluid near the center of the bottom wall rises up for the lower
trapezoidal cavity whereas due to the isothermal heating at the top
wall, the fluid near the inclined wall flows down for the upper
trapezoidal cavity. Thus a pair of symmetric circulations in oppo-
site directions were found in both the cavities (Fig. 13(a–d)). At
the low ðRaD ¼ 100 and 250), the isotherms for the upper trape-
zoidal cavity are found to be smooth whereas for the lower trape-
zoidal cavity, the isotherms are distorted near the cold walls and at
the central regime (Fig. 13(a and b)). As RaD increases, the iso-
therms are largely distorted and the oscillatory trend was found
in the lower cavity (Fig. 13(c and d)). The plume shaped isotherms
were observed near the bottom walls for both the upper and lower
cavities. On the other hand, for the upper trapezoidal enclosure,
stratification zones of isotherms have been observed near the top
wall signifying that RaD has negligible effect on the flow field for
the upper trapezoidal cavity. In addition, it was also concluded that
the thermal conductivity ratio and the aspect ratio of the trape-
zoidal enclosures plays a significant role in the heat transfer
enhancement within the entrapped porous enclosure. Moreover,
the average Nusselt number was observed to be higher for the
lower aspect ratio at the higher RaD .
Basak et al. [120] performed the numerical investigation of nat-
ural convection in a porous trapezoidal enclosure via the heatline
approach, for identical thermal boundary conditions as mentioned
in the earlier work [69]. The Darcy–Brinkman based governing
equations (Eqs. (19a)–(19d) and (36)) were solved using the finite
element method. The numerical solutions were studied in terms of
the streamlines, isotherms, heatlines, local and average Nusselt
numbers for a wide range of parameters, Da ð10
5
10
3 Þ; Pr
ð0:015
1000Þ, Ra ð103
106 Þ and inclination angles
(/ ¼ 45
90 ). It may be noted that the qualitative features of
the heatlines and streamlines are almost similar to the work car-
ried out by Basak et al. [69] for the fluid media. Overall, it was con-
cluded that the low Da corresponds to the conduction dominant
regime whereas the high Da signifies the convection dominant
regime. It was observed that, the average heat transfer rates at
the bottom and side walls are the increasing functions of Ra and
Da, irrespective of Pr and /. Similar to the fluid media case [69],
the overall heat transfer rates at the active walls were observed
to be higher for the square cavity compared to the trapezoidal cav-
ities irrespective of Pr and Da.
Ramakrishna et al. [121] reported the investigations on natural
convection using the concept of heatline (Eqs. (19a)–(19d) and
(36)) in porous trapezoidal enclosures based on two different ther-
mal boundary conditions: (i) case 1: the linearly heated side walls
and (ii) case 2: the linearly heated left wall and cold right wall. In
both the cases, the bottom wall was isothermally hot and top wall
was adiabatic. The studies were carried out for various Darcy num-
ber (Da), Prandtl number (Pr) and Rayleigh number (Ra) involving
various inclination angles ð/Þ for the identical parameter ranges as
discussed in the previous work [120]. The fluid flow and heat flow
features within the enclosures during the conduction and convec-
tion dominant regimes are qualitatively similar to the results
obtained by Basak et al. [114] for the fluid media (Fig. 14(i–iv)).
In the present work, it is observed that the wall effect is larger
within the enclosures and that contrasts the flow features obtained
in the work carried out by Basak et al. [114]. Note that, at the high
Da (Da ¼ 10
3 ), the effect of the porous media was found to be con-
siderably lesser and the flow features were almost identical to the
fluid media [114] (Fig. 14(iii–iv)). Similar to the earlier work for the
fluid media [114], the average Nusselt number at the bottom wall
 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 27

Fig. 13. Streamfunction (w) and isotherm (h) for height-base aspect ratio, A ¼ 0:3, thermal conductivity ratio, k ¼ 1 and various Darcy–Rayleigh numbers (a) RaD ¼ 100, (b)
RaD ¼ 250, (c) RaD ¼ 500, and (d) RaD ¼ 1000 [119]. (figure is reproduced from Varol [119] with permission from Elsevier).

is higher for the square cavity than the trapezoidal cavities at the
high Da and Ra with the low Pr for the case 1.
The number of studies of the entropy generation in a porous
trapezoidal enclosure is limited in the literature. The entropy gen-
eration analysis during natural convection in a porous trapezoidal
structure of various inclination angles with the isothermal (case 1)
and non-isothermal (case 2) hot bottom wall was numerically
investigated by Basak et al. [122]. The governing equations (Eqs.
(19a)–(19d)) are solved using the finite element method as dis-
cussed in the earlier work [115]. Simulations were carried out for
various ranges of modified Darcy number (Dam ), Prandtl number
(Pr m ) at the modified Rayleigh number (Ram ¼ 106 ). The inclination
angle, u is defined as the angle between the left inclined wall and
the Y-axis for three different inclination angles; u ¼ 45 ; 60 and
90 . It may be noted that the fluid flow and temperature distribu-
tions within the enclosures are found to be qualitatively similar to
the previous work carried out by Basak et al. [115]. It is observed
that the maximum heat transfer irreversibility ðSh Þ occurs near bot-
tom corners for the case 1 and near the middle part of the left and
right portions of the bottom wall for the case 2 at Dam ¼ 10
3 and
Ram ¼ 106 irrespective of Pr m . It was found that, the maximum
value of the fluid friction irreversibility ðSw Þ occurs along the top
wall at Prm ¼ 0:015, and at the interface between the counter rotat-
ing circulation cells near the bottom wall at Pr m ¼ 1000 with
u ¼ 45 and 60 ; Dam ¼ 10
3 and Ram ¼ 106 , for the cases 1–2, sim-
ilar to the fluid media [115]. However, for u ¼ 90 (square cavity),
the maximum fluid friction irreversibility occurs near the side
walls for all Prm at Dam ¼ 10
3 and Ram ¼ 106 , irrespective of the
cases. The Stotal is found to be remarkably lower for the case 2 com-
pared to the case 1 during the convection dominant regime for all
Pr and this feature is similar to those observed in the work carried
out by Basak et al. [115]. It is found that, the high heat transfer rate,
optimal thermal mixing and minimum entropy generation rate
occur for 7  10
5 6 Dam 6 4  10
4 at all the inclination angles.
It is also recommended that the case 2 (non-isothermal heating)
is preferable for the efficient processing involving the fluids with
the high Pr m and the case 1 (isothermal heating) is preferable for
the low Pr m fluids at Dam ¼ 10
3 . Finally it is concluded that, the
square cavities followed by trapezoidal cavities with u ¼ 60
may be the optimal geometries for the efficient thermal processing
involving cases 1 and 2 at all Pr m and Dam .
Later, Ramakrishna et al. [123] numerically investigated the
thermal management within a porous trapezoidal enclosure
during the natural convection using the heatlines and entropy
generation. The left wall was maintained isothermally hot whereas
the right wall was maintained isothermally cold. The horizontal
walls were kept adiabatic. Similar to the previous works
[115,122], Galerkin finite element method has been used to

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28 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Fig. 14. Streamfunction (w), isotherm (h) and heatfunction (P) at Rayleigh number Ra ¼ 106 (i) uniformly heated bottom wall with linearly heated side walls at Pr ¼ 0:015
and Da ¼ 10
5 ; (ii) uniformly heated bottom wall with linearly heated left wall and cold right wall at Pr ¼ 0:015 and Da ¼ 10
5 ; (iii) uniformly heated bottom wall with
linearly heated side walls at Pr ¼ 988:24 and Da ¼ 10
3 , and (iv) uniformly heated bottom wall with linearly heated left wall and cold right wall at Pr ¼ 988:24 and Da ¼ 10
3
[121]. (figures are reproduced from Ramakrishna et al. [121] with permission from Taylor & Francis).

analyze streamlines, isotherms, heatlines, entropy generation 4.3. Nanofluids

due to fluid friction and heat transfer over wide range of
parameters (10
5 6 Da 6 10
3 ; 0:015 6 Ra 6 1000, 30 6 u 6 90 )
at Ra ¼ 106 . For all u, the heat circulation cells were found to
intensify with Da. Consequently, the thermal mixing was found
to be enhanced as Da increases from 10
5 to 10
3 . The active zones
of Sw were found to occur along the left wall for u ¼ 30 and 90
irrespective of Pr whereas that occurs along the right wall for
u ¼ 60 during the convection dominant regime (Da ¼ 10
3 ). The
thermal irreversibility zones were observed at the left edge of
the bottom wall irrespective of Pr and Da for u ¼ 30 and 60
whereas that occurs at the left edge of bottom wall and right edge
of top wall for u ¼ 90 for all Da. Overall, the total entropy gener-
ation was found to be higher for Pr ¼ 1000 compared to that of
Pr ¼ 0:015 at the higher Da. It is also found that the trapezoidal
cavities with u ¼ 60 and 90 correspond to the less entropy gen-
eration with significant heat transfer rates at Da ¼ 10
3 for
Pr ¼ 0:015 and Pr ¼ 1000 and thus the trapezoidal cavities with
u ¼ 60 may be the optimal design for the thermal processing of
fluids at Pr ¼ 0:015 and 1000.
Saleh et al. [124] numerically investigated and compared natu-
ral convection heat transfer in a trapezoidal enclosure filled with
Cu–nanofluid, water–Al2O3 and the base fluid (water). The govern-
ing equations in terms of streamfunction–vorticity formulation
(Eqs. (28a)–(28c)) were solved numerically using the finite differ-
ence method. The left and the right inclined walls were maintained
isothermally hot and cold, respectively while the horizontal walls
of the trapezoidal enclosure were adiabatic. The effects of Grashof
number (Gr), inclination angle of the sloping wall ðuÞ, solid volume
fraction ð/Þ on the fluid and heat flow fields have been investi-
gated. It is interesting to observe that the fluid circulation pattern
within the trapezoidal enclosure is similar for both the Cu–nano-
fluid and base fluid. Note that, the qualitative features of streamli-
nes within the enclosures filled with the base fluid is similar to the
results obtained by Ramakrishna et al. [116]. However, the inten-
sity of the streamfunctions was found to be higher for the nano-
fluid compared to the base fluid. It was found that the average
heat transfer rate increases for the Cu-nanofluid in contrast to
the base fluid. It was also observed that the intensity of

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 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
streamfunctions increases with the solid volume fraction of the
nanoparticles in the base fluid. The overall heat transfer rate was
observed to increase with the solid volume fraction. Consequently
the overall heat transfer rate were observed to be higher for the Cu-
nanofluid compared to water–Al2O3 for the equal concentration
level.
Further, Saleh and co-authors [125] studied the fluid and ther-
mal flow characteristics in the trapezoidal enclosure filled with
water–Al2O3 nanofluids for the differentially heated side walls
and adiabatic top and bottom walls. The non-dimensional forms
of the governing equations (Eqs. (27a)–(27d)) were solved numer-
ically using the finite difference method. It was observed that Ray-
leigh number ðRaÞ, the base angle (angle formed by the bottom
wall of the trapezoidal enclosure with the X-coordinate), volume
fraction and size of the nano-particles play pivotal role in natural
convection heat transfer within the trapezoidal enclosure. The fluid
flow and temperature distribution within the enclosure is found to
be similar to the results obtained in the previous work [124]. Note
that, the fluid flow within the trapezoidal enclosure is intensified
as Ra increases, for a constant volume fraction of nanoparticles in
the base fluid and a constant base angle. In addition, the gradual
increase in Ra results in the distortion of isotherms in contrast to
the low Ra. It was also interesting to observe that, the magnitudes
of streamfunction are found to be decreased as the base angle and
volume fraction of the nanoparticles in the base fluid increase. It
was concluded that the trapezoidal shaped cavity is more efficient
than the square cavity for the enhanced heat transfer. Moreover, it
was found that, there is no significant improvement in the convec-
tive heat transfer rate using nanofluids compared to the base fluid
[124].
The parametric study on natural convection phenomena in a
trapezoidal cavity filled with water–Cu nanofluid was studied by
Nasrin and Parvin [126]. The horizontal walls of the enclosure were
insulated while the left and right inclined walls were isothermally
hot and cold, respectively. The governing equations (Eqs. (27a)–
(27d)) were solved numerically based on the finite element tech-
nique with Galerkin’s weighted residual simulation. Solutions were
obtained for a wide range of aspect ratio (0:65 6 A 6 2) and Prandtl
number (1:47 6 Pr 6 8:81) at the constant Rayleigh number
(Ra ¼ 105 ) and solid volume fraction (/ ¼ 0:05). In contrast to the
previous works [124,125], the effect of the aspect ratio of the trape-
zoidal enclosures was studied in details for both the nanofluids and
base fluid. For the trapezoidal enclosures with the lower aspect
ratio, there exists a large dissimilarity between the base fluid and
nanofluid, as seen from the streamline contours. In addition, short
distances between the hot and cold surfaces in the trapezoidal
enclosure with the higher aspect ratio, results in the increase in rate
of heat transfer, in contrast to the other values of A. Similar to the
previous works [124,125], the strength of the flow circulation is
observed to be much higher in the presence of nanoparticles for
the high Pr values. Consequently, the isotherms are compressed
towards the side walls and large thermal gradients are observed
along the left inclined surface of the enclosure. Overall, Cu nanopar-
ticles with the highest Pr fluid is concluded to be most effective in
enhancing the performance of the heat transfer rate within the
trapezoidal enclosures with the low aspect ratio (A).
5. Parallelogrammic and rhombic enclosures
5.1. Fluid media
In the recent past, extensive studies have been carried out in the
rhombic and parallelogrammic shaped enclosures as discussed
next. Yuncu and Yamac [127] reported the laminar natural convec-
tion in an air (Pr ¼ 0:71) filled parallelogrammic cavity with the
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Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
29
horizontal isothermal walls and insulated inclined walls. They
compared the results with those of a rectangular cavity with sim-
ilar boundary conditions. The governing equations (Eqs. (6a)–(7))
are expressed in terms of the dimensionless streamfunction, vor-
ticity and temperature. The finite difference technique has been
implemented and the difference equations were obtained using
the integration cell approach. Studies were carried out for two dif-
ferent aspect ratios (A ¼ 1 and 2) and three different inclination
angles (d ¼ 90 , 45 and 26:6 ). Since the left wall is maintained
at a higher temperature compared to the right wall, the fluid near
the hot left wall rises and falls down along the cold right wall. Thus
the single circulation cell is formed at the low Ra (Ra ¼ 1733) for
A ¼ 1 and d ¼ 45 . In addition, distorted isotherms, parallel to the
side walls, are observed within the parallelogrammic enclosure
for the identical parameters. Also, in order to find the influence
of the direction of the heat flow on the heat transfer rate, the for-
ward average heat transfer coefficient (the temperature on the
front surface of the enclosure is higher compared to the back sur-
face) and backward average heat transfer coefficient (the tempera-
ture on the front surface of the enclosure is lower compared to the
back surface) were measured. It is observed that the rectification
ratio, R (the ratio of the average Nusselt number in the forward
and backward directions) increases sharply with Ra for the lower
aspect ratio (A ¼ 1) and lesser inclination angles (d). However,
the rate of increase of R is lesser for the enclosures with the higher
aspect ratio (A) and lower inclination angles (d). It is also found
that R is invariant with Ra for the highest inclination angle irre-
spective of the aspect ratio (A). Finally, it was concluded that, a par-
allelogrammic cavity transmits more heat in the forward direction
than a rectangular cavity of the same aspect ratio. In addition, it
was also inferred that the average Nusselt number in the forward
direction of the parallelogrammic cavity is higher compared to
the backward direction for almost all the cases.
Moukalled et al. [128] studied the effect of the enclosure gap
ratios and parallelogrammic angles on the laminar natural convec-
tion in a horizontal parallelogrammic annulus. Their study depicts
that the increase in the enclosure gap ratio and parallelogram
angle increases the flow strength and convective heat transfer rate.
In addition, Moukalled and Acharya [129] examined the effect of
the vertical eccentricity on natural convection in a parallelogram-
mic annulus. The effect of key parameters such as enclosure gap
values (Er ¼ 0:5
0:75), eccentricity values ( ¼
0:25 to 0:25),
and Rayleigh number (Ra ¼ 104 -108 ) were studied. It was found
that the negative values of eccentricity lead to an increase in heat
transfer rate. Also, it was concluded that at the low Ra, there is a
critical positive eccentricity value at which the flow strength was
found to be the maximum. At the high Ra, the higher positive
eccentricity factor resulted in the decrease of the flow strength
and heat transfer rate.
Naylor and Oosthuizen [130] reported two-dimensional natural
convective flow in a differentially heated parallelogram shaped
enclosure. The hot left and cold right walls of the enclosure were
kept isothermal and inclined at an angle b with respect to the grav-
ity. The top and bottom walls of the enclosure were horizontal and
adiabatic. The computations were carried out for a wide range of
Rayleigh number (103 6 Ra 6 105 ) and the height base aspect ratio
(0:5 6 A 6 3) at different inclination angles (
60 6 b 6 60 ) of the
side walls with the bottom wall. The inclination angle (b) is defined
as the angle between the side walls and the Y-axis. The results
were presented for Pr ¼ 0:7. Note that, the fluid within the paral-
lelogrammic enclosure forms a primary fluid circulation cell with
the single vortex for
60 6 b 6 60 whereas multiple vortices
are observed within the enclosure for
30 6 b 6 30 . It is interest-
ing to observe that the intensity of convection is higher for the pos-
itive inclination angles compared to the negative inclination
30 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
angles, irrespective of Ra and A (aspect ratio). In addition, it is
found that the fluid circulation cells are elongated along the hori-
zontal direction for b ¼
60 and the penetration of fluid is deeper
along the bottom corner regions. Note that, the average heat trans-
fer rate increases monotonically with Ra for all the inclination
angles (
60 6 b 6 60 ). Overall, it was concluded that the positive
values of the inclination angles result in more uniform distribution
of heat transfer rates compared to the negative inclination angles.
Aldridge and Yao [131] studied natural convection in a parallel-
ogrammic enclosure with the hot left wall, cold right wall and adi-
abatic horizontal walls. The finite volume method was used to
solve the unsteady governing equations [see the steady balance
equations: Eqs. (1a)–(1d)]. Simulations were carried out for
Pr ¼ 6:8 (water) and Pr ¼ 3300 (silicone oil), at various Rayleigh
numbers, Ra ¼ 4:3  104
2:92  107 . At the high Pr and low Ra,
the weak convection dominance occurs throughout the enclosure
and the boundary layers were absent, as the viscous forces are
dominant over the buoyancy forces. Due to the buoyancy forces
and imposed temperature gradient between the hot isothermal left
wall and cold isothermal right wall, fluid rises near the hot left wall
and flows down along the cold right wall, forming a single clock-
wise circulation cell within the parallelogrammic cavity at
Pr ¼ 3300. As Ra increases to 3:2  105 , the greater buoyancy force
results in the formation of the thin boundary layers along the side
walls for Pr ¼ 3300. In contrast to the low Ra, multiple vortices are
observed near the core of the parallelogrammic enclosure, depict-
ing the intense convection especially near the core of the enclosure
at the high Ra. At Pr ¼ 6:8 and Ra ¼ 2:55  106 , the secondary
vortices as observed for the high Pr fluids, shift towards the walls
and appear as an elliptical pattern with the large ellipticity. The
average heat transfer rate of the hot left wall was found to increase
sharply with Ra.
Bairi [132] studied natural convection in closed cavities of the
parallelogram section filled with air (Pr ¼ 0:71) and suggested a
new definition of the Nusselt number. The two dimensional paral-
lelogrammic enclosure was filled with air and consisted of the hot
isothermal left wall, cold isothermal right wall, along with the
insulated top and bottom walls. It may be noted that the adiabatic
top and bottom walls are inclined at an angle a with respect to the
horizontal X-axis. In most of the studies, the Nusselt number is
based on either the height of the active walls or the distance
between them. Although this definition correctly accounts for the
heat exchange phenomena in cavities of the rectangular section,
Bairi [132] proposed that the original definition of the Nusselt
number is insufficient for the case of the cavities with inclined
walls (parallelogrammic enclosures) as the heat transfer in the par-
allelogrammic enclosures does not occur only by convection
between the active walls, but also by radiation and conduction
through the passive walls. Thus, a modified definition of the Nus-
selt number was proposed for the parallelogrammic enclosures fol-
lowing a 2D numerical simulations based on the boundary element
method.
In another study, Bairi et al. [133] analyzed the transient natural
convection in the parallelogrammic enclosure and examined the
model for the different inclination angles of the cavity. Similar to
the previous work [132], the left and right vertical walls of the
enclosure were kept as isothermally hot and cold, respectively
and the adiabatic top and bottom walls were tilted at an angle a
with respect to the horizontal X-axis. The motion pressure (motion
pressure is the sum of intrinsic pressure and hydraulic pressure)
was incorporated in the momentum equations (Eqs. (1b) and
(1c)) and the viscous dissipation term was incorporated in the
energy balance equation (Eq. (1d)). The governing equations were
solved using the finite volume method coupled with the SIMPLE
algorithm. The study was carried out for a wide range of Rayleigh
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numbers (105 6 Ra 6 109 ) at Pr ¼ 0:7. In addition, the numerical
simulations were performed for five specific angles (a ¼ 0 ; 30
and 60 ) and three Fourier numbers (Fo ¼ 0:0033; 0:0133 and
0:1333). It is interesting to observe that, at the low Fo
(Fo ¼ 0:0033) and a ¼ 0 , the major fluid movement occurs along
the boundaries of the enclosure and the central core of the enclo-
sure remains essentially stagnant based on the weak multiple vor-
tices. This feature can also be verified from the isotherms which
clearly depict that the variation in temperature occurs only along
the boundaries and a large central core of the enclosure is main-
tained at an uniform temperature (Fig. 15). As Fo increases, the
thermal diffusivity towards the core of the enclosure also increases
and hence the fluid movement was found to be more intense. It is
also observed that the multiple vortices occurring at the low Fo,
merge and form the fluid circulation cell with the single vortex.
In addition, the temperature stratification is observed near the core
of the enclosure, at the low Fo (Fig. 15). For positive angles, stagna-
tion zones are observed along the corners of the cavity and similar
to a ¼ 0, majority of the fluid movement is observed along the
walls connecting the hot and cold plates through the peripheral
path (Fig. 15). On the other hand, for negative angles, the fluid flow
between the isothermal walls becomes gradually disconnected as
the angle increases. This further results in the formation of the tiny
circulation cells in the proximity of each wall separately. Note that,
this effect is more significant at the high Fo. The maximum Nusselt
number and maximum velocity near the hot wall were determined
for all the angles ðaÞ and they were compared to the cavity with
a ¼ 0 . Finally, the simulation results in this study were validated
with the experimental data and the comparison is in the reason-
able agreement.
Costa et al. [134] carried out a numerical study for the laminar
natural convection heat transfer occurring in a vertical stack of par-
allelogrammic partial enclosures and reported the thermal diode
effect on the thermal performance of the enclosure. The left wall
of the stack is maintained at higher temperature compared to the
right wall and the horizontal top and bottom walls are assumed
to be adiabatic. The momentum equations were obtained in terms
of the driving pressure (driving pressure is the sum of intrinsic
pressure and hydraulic pressure). Further, the momentum (Eqs.
(1b) and (1c)) and energy balance equations (Eq. (1d)) are solved
using the control volume based finite element method. The length
of each partition was less than the width of the main enclosure.
The thermal diode effect offered by the geometry was thoroughly
analyzed in terms of the partition’s inclination angle and materials
for the various thermal boundary conditions. The fluid flow and
heat transfer within the enclosure, were analyzed via isotherms,
streamlines and heatlines. The results were obtained for the fluids
with Pr ¼ 0:73 at Ra ¼ 107 for various inclination angles of the
shutter with the horizontal plane (a ¼ 0 ; 30 and 60 ) and two
different aspect ratios (L=H ¼ 0:2 and 0:5). It is interesting to
observe that in the absence of the shutters, the isotherms are dis-
torted lines, originating from the bottom wall and ending on the
top wall. Streamlines and heatlines demonstrate a single clockwise
vortex in the center of the main enclosure in the absence of the
shutters (a ¼ 0 ). However, in the presence of the shutters, the
fluid and heat circulation cells are observed in each partition as
seen in Fig. 16. In addition, the heat flow within the enclosure is
also demonstrated by the end to end convective heatlines which
emanate from the lower portion of the left wall and end on the
right wall in each panel (Fig. 16). It is interesting to observe that
isotherms with h ¼ 0:4
0:6 originate near the corners of the bot-
tom wall and follow a zig-zag path, before ending near the corners
of the top wall (Fig. 16). Note that, as the inclination angle between
the shutter and horizontal plane increases, the inclined fluid and
heat circulation cells of higher magnitudes are observed in each
 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 31

Fig. 15. Isotherms (h) and streamlines (w) for inclination angle a ¼ 0; 30 , 60 at different Fourier numbers F o and Rayleigh number Ra ¼ 1:2  108 [133] for Pr ¼ 0:7.
(figures are reproduced from Bairi et al. [133] with permission from Elsevier).

partition. As the aspect ratio (L=H) increases to 0:5, concentrated
isotherms were also observed near the lower half of the hot wall
and at the upper half of the cold wall. The cases which involved
high thermal conductivity of the shutters compared to the fluid
demonstrated the maximum heat transfer rate irrespective of Ra
and a.
Anandalakshmi and Basak [135] analyzed the energy distribu-
tion and thermal mixing in the steady laminar natural convective
flow through the rhombic enclosures using the heatline concept
and also extended this study in order to find the efficiency [136]
of this system. The momentum and energy balance equations
(Eqs. (3a)–(3d)) are solved using the Galerkin finite element
method in both the studies. They presented their results for the
various regimes of Prandtl and Rayleigh numbers with various
inclination angles ðu ¼ 30 ; 40 and 75 Þ and reported that the
enhanced thermal mixing occurs at u ¼ 75 for both the isother-
mal and non-isothermal heating of the bottom wall. Isotherms,
streamlines and heatlines are mostly smooth curves for all the
inclination angles during the conduction dominant heat transport
at Ra ¼ 103 . At the higher Ra (Ra ¼ 105 ), multiple flow circulations
are observed for the low Pr values (0:015 and 0:7) involving all the
inclination angles. On the other hand, multiple circulation cells are
suppressed and two asymmetric flow circulation cells are found to
occupy the entire cavity for the higher Pr fluids (7:2 and 1000) at
the higher inclination angles. Interesting features on the heatlines
further demonstrate that the major heat transport to the left wall
occurs directly from the bottom wall whereas the right wall
receives heat based on the convective cell at the smaller inclination

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32 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
Fig. 16. Isotherm (h), streamfunction (w) and heatfunction (P) for the enclosure with shutters of inclination angle a ¼ 30 , thermal conductivity ratio Rc ¼ 100, main
enclosure aspect ratio, L=H ¼ 0:2 and Rayleigh number Ra ¼ 107 [134] for Pr ¼ 0:73. (figures are reproduced from Costa et al. [134] with permission from Elsevier).
angles [135]. On the other hand, the heat flow is evenly distributed
to the side walls at larger u’s and larger Pr [135]. At the low Ra
(Ra ¼ 103 ), the entropy generation (Eq. (39a)) within the cavity
was found to be dominated by Sh for all the inclination angles
5
(u), irrespective of Pr. However, at the high Ra (Ra ¼ 10 ), the fluid
flow intensifies and Sw also increases for all u, irrespective of Pr.
The entropy generation due to heat transfer is found to be signifi-
cant in the lower portions of the cavity due to the large tempera-
ture gradients in those regions [136] whereas the entropy
generation due to the fluid friction is significant corresponding to
large velocity gradient, especially at the zone where the solid wall
is in contact with the adjacent circulation cells. The comparison of
the magnitudes indicates that the maximum entropy generation
due to the heat transfer is identical for both Ra ¼ 103 and
Ra ¼ 105 , whereas the entropy generation due to the fluid friction
is lower for Ra ¼ 103 and that is higher for Ra ¼ 105 due to the
higher fluid friction, for all the inclination angles and Pr. Overall,
the total entropy generation (Stotal ) is found to be low for the lower
inclination angles for all Pr values at Ra ¼ 105 [136].
In another study, Anandalakshmi and Basak [137] carried out
the entropy generation studies within the rhombic enclosure
which was subjected to the differential heating (case 1) and Ray-
leigh–Benard convection (case 2). The streamline features for the
case 1 exhibit the single fluid circulation cell at the low Ra whereas
the multiple fluid circulation cells and single fluid circulation cell
with multiple vortices are observed at the higher Ra especially
for the larger inclination angles (u) and high Pr. The streamline
features of the case 2 at Ra ¼ 105 demonstrate that the multiple
flow circulation cells occur for the low Pr (Pr ¼ 0:015) whereas
the strong fluid circulation cell with a single vortex is observed
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for the high Pr (Pr ¼ 1000). Similar to the previous work [136],
the active zones of Sh and Sw are found to occur near the isothermal
walls for all the inclination angles (u) irrespective of Pr in both the
cases at Ra ¼ 105 . In addition, the active zones of Sw are also found
to occur near the adiabatic walls of the cavity for all u’s irrespec-
tive of Pr in both the cases at Ra ¼ 105 . Also, the regions between
the fluid layers of primary circulation cells act as the strong active
zones of Sw for all u’s in the case 2 at Pr ¼ 0:015 and Ra ¼ 105 . The
total entropy generation (Stotal ) and maximum heat transfer rates
(Nu) are found to be significantly low for the lower u in both the
cases at Ra ¼ 105 irrespective of Pr. The average heat transfer rate
was found to be higher for the Rayleigh–Benard convection (case 2)
compared to the differential heating case (case 1). However, the
total entropy generation was found to be higher for the case 2 com-
pared to the case 1. Thus, it was finally concluded that Rayleigh–
Benard convection (case 2) is not an energy efficient process com-
pared to the differential heating case (case 1) due to the large fluid
friction irreversibilities.
5.2. Porous media
A few studies are available on natural convection in the porous
parallelogrammic enclosures. Baytas and Pop [138] presented the
detailed numerical simulations for natural convection in a differen-
tially heated porous parallelogrammic enclosure with the isother-
mal inclined walls and adiabatic horizontal walls. For
simplification, the computational domain was mapped onto a rect-
angular shaped cavity using a non-linear axis transformation. The
Darcy model based unsteady form of the governing equations
(Eq. (12b)) are expressed in the new coordinate system and solved
 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 33

numerically using the ADI (Alternative Direction Implicit) finite
difference method. The numerical computations have been carried
out for various inclination angles (/ ¼ 0 ; 15 , 30 ; 45 and
60 ) at two different values of Darcy–Rayleigh numbers
(RaD ¼ 103 and 104 ). At / ¼ 0 (square enclosure) and RaD ¼ 103 ,
a large primary circulation cell of lesser intensity is observed
within the enclosure. In addition, at the low RaD (¼ 103 ), weak
thermal boundary layers are also observed near the top portion
of the left wall and bottom portion of the cold right wall, depicting
lesser heat transfer rates to those regions. As RaD increases to 104 ,
the thicknesss of the thermal boundary layers especially at the top
portion of left wall and bottom portion of the right wall are greatly
reduced. It may be noted that the isotherms in the central region of
the enclosure are observed to be nearly parallel to the horizontal
walls especially for the lower inclination angles even at
RaD ¼ 104 . The distributions of the streamlines and isotherms
within the parallelogrammic enclosures for the inclination angles
0 to 45 , are qualitatively similar to those observed for the
square enclosure, at RaD ¼ 103 and 104 . However, the primary fluid
circulation cells are reduced in size with the increase in the incli-
nation angle. At the higher RaD , a pair of asymmetric cells are
observed only for the parallelogrammic enclosure with / ¼
60 ,
in contrast to the other enclosures. Finally, it was concluded that,
for all the enclosures, the rate of heat transfer is higher for the high
RaD .
Moukalled and Darwish [139] presented a numerical study on
the laminar natural convection in a porous rhombic annulus. Dar
cy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model based momentum and energy
balance equations (Eqs. (9), (11) (20a) and (20b)) were solved
using the pressure-based finite volume method. Numerical simula-
tions were carried out for a wide range of Rayleigh number
(Ra ¼ 104
107 ), Darcy number (Da ¼ 10
5
10
1 ), porosity
( ¼ 0:3; 0:6 and 0:9), enclosure gap (Eg ¼ 0:875; 0:75; 0:5, and
0:25) and Prandtl numbers (Pr ¼ 0:7 and 5). It was found that the
intensity of the fluid flow and convection heat transfer increase
with Ra; Da; Eg and . Fig. 17(a-l) demonstrate the distributions of
streamlines and isotherms for the half domain of the parallelo-
grammic enclosure. It is interesting to observe that the strength

Fig. 17. Streamlines (w) and isotherms (h) for the enclosure between two isothermal concentric cylinders of rhombic cross-sections (half domain) for different values of
porosity ðÞ at Rayleigh number, Ra ¼ 106 , enclosure gap ratio, Eg ¼ 0:875, and Darcy number, Da ¼ 0:1 [139] for Pr ¼ 0:7 and 5. (figures are reproduced from Moukalled and
Darwish [139] with permission from Taylor & Francis).

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34 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
of the streamfunction decreases with the porosity () at Ra ¼ 106
and Eg ¼ 0:875 for all Pr (see Fig. 17(a-f)). It may also be noted that
the flow circulation cells within the enclosures are unicellular at
the high Eg (Eg ¼ 0:875) irrespective of  and Pr. However, as enclo-
sure gap ratio (Eg ) decreases (Eg ¼ 0:25), the flow circulation cells
tend to segregate near the core of the enclosure and eventually
forms a pair of fluid circulation cells. The isotherms of Fig. 17(g–
l) demonstrate that the right half of the enclosure is mostly main-
tained cold with h ¼ 0:1 at Eg ¼ 0:875 for all  and Pr. In addition, it
is also observed that the isotherms are largely compressed towards
the hot zones and they are distorted near the central core region of
the enclosure especially for high  and Pr (Fig. 17(g–l)). For low val-
ues of Eg , isotherms are found to be parallel lines and the heat
transfer within the enclosure is conduction dominant. It was also
observed that the average heat transfer rate was higher when the
enclosure gap ratio (Eg ) is lesser irrespective of Pr. The average heat
transfer rate also indicates the existence of the critical Ra for a
fixed Pr; Da;  and Eg . Finally, it was concluded that the critical Ra
decreases with Da and  and the critical Ra increases as Eg
decreases.
Anandalakshmi and Basak [140] analyzed the energy distribu-
tion and thermal mixing in the steady laminar natural convective
flow through the porous rhombic cavities using the Darcy–Brink-
man model (Eqs. (19a)–(19d)). The effect of the Darcy number
(Da) and the role of the inclination angles on the energy distribu-
tion and thermal mixing within the porous rhombic cavities with
the isothermal (case 1) and non-isothermal (case 2) hot bottom
walls were demonstrated via the heatlines. They concluded that
the cup mixing temperature was higher for the case 1 compared
to the case 2. Isotherms, streamlines, and heatlines are monotonic
and smooth curves for all the inclination angles at Da ¼ 10
5 irre-
spective of the heating strategies. The left cold wall is found to
receive more heat from the large portion of the hot bottom wall
for the lower inclination angles. As the inclination angle increases,
the heat distribution is found to be even throughout the enclosure,
as indicated by the heatlines at Da ¼ 10
5 . Further, the distortion
of the heatlines indicates that the onset of convection occurs at

4
Da ¼ 10 due to an increase in the permeability of the porous
media, and the heatlines from the hot bottom wall take a longer
path to reach the cold side walls of the cavity for all the inclination
values. Multiple flow circulations are observed for the fluids with
the low Pr at Da ¼ 10
3 . The overall heat transfer rate from the bot-
tom wall to the left wall was found to be higher for u ¼ 30 for the
case 1 irrespective of Pr. On the other hand, the maximum heat
transfer rate from the bottom wall occurs for u ¼ 75 for the case
2 at the high Da and Pr.
A few earlier works [141,142] have extended natural convection
studies for the entropy generation (Eq. (44)) in the porous rhombic
cavities. Anandalakshmi and Basak [141] analyzed natural convec-
tion in porous rhombic enclosures for the various thermal aspect
ratios via the entropy generation approach. The effect of the ther-
mal aspect ratio and inclination angle (u) for the various governing
parameters (Darcy number, Prandtl number) were illustrated via
the heat transfer irreversibility (Sh ) and fluid friction irreversibility
(Sw ). In their study, they observed that the entropy generation due
to the heat transfer and fluid friction are significant on the bottom
and left walls, especially at the high Da for the lower inclination
angles. However, for the higher inclination angles, all the walls
act as the active zones of the entropy generation due to heat trans-
fer and fluid friction at Da ¼ 10
3 . It was found that at the lower
thermal aspect ratio (Fig. 18(i)), the entropy generation in the cav-
ity is dominated by both Sh and Sw for all u’s, irrespective of the
Darcy (Da) and Prandtl numbers (Pr). As the thermal aspect ratio
increases, Sh as well as Sw decreases for all the inclination angles
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Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
and consequently, Stotal decreases with the thermal aspect ratio
(Fig. 18(ii)). Further, it was observed that, the total entropy gener-
ation (Stotal ) is found to be lower for the lower inclination angles
and higher for the higher inclination angles irrespective of Pr and
Da (Fig. 18(i and ii)). It was concluded that the minimum entropy
generation (Stotal ) with the higher heat transfer rate and reasonable
heat transfer rate occur for Pr ¼ 0:015 and Pr ¼ 1000, respectively
at u ¼ 30 cavities with all the thermal aspect ratios irrespective of
Da.
Similar to the studies within fluid media [137], Anandalakshmi
and Basak [142] analyzed the entropy generation within the rhom-
bic cavity filled with fluid saturated porous media for the similar
thermal boundary conditions as mentioned in the other study
[137]. The simulations were performed for Da ¼ 10
5
10
3 and
Pr ¼ 0:015
7:2 at a fixed Rayleigh number (Ra ¼ 106 ) in order to
show the effect of Da. The results were presented in terms of the
isotherms (h), streamlines (w), entropy generation maps due to heat
transfer (Sh ), and entropy generation maps due to fluid friction (Sw ).
The active zones of Sh and Sw are observed near the junction of adi-
abatic and isothermal walls, at Da ¼ 10
5 in both the cases, irre-
spective of Pr and the inclination angles. At Da ¼ 10
3 , active
zones of heat transfer and fluid friction irreversibilities occur over
a wide region along the isothermal walls, for the higher inclination
angles. It was found that, at the lower inclination angles, Sh;max
decreases with Da in the case 1 for all Pr. However, for the higher
inclination angles Sh;max shows increasing trend with Da. In contrast
to the case 1, Sh;max increases with Da in the case 2, irrespective of Pr
and the inclination angles. Note that, in contrast to Da ¼ 10
5 , the
maximum entropy generation due to fluid friction (Sw;max ) is higher
at Da ¼ 10
3 due to the enhanced fluid flow irrespective of heating
situations (case 1 and case 2), inclination angles, and Pr. Overall,
similar to the fluid media [137], the Rayleigh–Benard convection
(case 2) is not an energy efficient process compared to the differen-
tial heating case (case 1) for the porous media.
6. Complex geometries
6.1. Fluid media
A few studies are found in the literature on the natural convec-
tion in the enclosures with curved and wavy walls [143–154] as
shown in Fig. 1(d). Varol and Oztop [143] numerically investigated
natural convection heat transfer and fluid flow within a rectangu-
lar wavy walled and inclined solar collector. Flat ceiling was con-
sidered as the cover (cold temperature) of the solar collector and
wavy wall as the absorber (hot temperature). The governing equa-
tions [basic governing equations as given in Eqs. (1a)–(1d) are
modified for the inclined cavity] were solved using the CFD soft-
ware package. The working fluid was considered as air
(Pr ¼ 0:71) within the collector. The numerical computations were
carried out within the enclosure for various parameters such as,
Rayleigh number (Ra ¼ 106
8  106 ), inclination angle of the
insulated wall with the horizontal axis (0o
90o ), aspect ratio
(A ¼ 2
3), and wavelength (1 6 L 6 4). As the wavy wall is kept
at a higher temperature, fluid within the cavity rises up due to
the buoyancy forces and impinges on the top wall, before falling
in the downward direction. This results in the formation of the
clockwise and anti-clockwise fluid circulation cells within the cav-
ity. Rectangular shaped fluid circulation cells are observed near the
ends of the enclosure at the low Ra. Note that, the fluid between
the cells are found to be stagnant which can be further verified
from the smooth isotherms. As Ra increases, the flow intensity
increases at the middle of the enclosure. The isotherms show the
swirling pattern at the high Ra and that is intensified to the cavity
 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 35

Fig. 18. Isotherms (h), local entropy generation due to heat transfer (Sh ), streamlines (w) and local entropy generation due to fluid friction (Sw ) at Prandtl number, Pr ¼ 0:015,
Darcy number, Da ¼ 10
3 ; Ra ¼ 106 for (i) thermal aspect ratio A ¼ 0:1 at inclination angles (a) / ¼ 30 , (b) / ¼ 45 and (c) / ¼ 75 and (ii) A ¼ 0:9 at inclination angles (a)
/ ¼ 30 , (b) / ¼ 45 and (c) / ¼ 75 [141]. (figures are reproduced from Anandalakshmi and Basak [141] with permission from Elsevier).

of the wavy wall. Overall, the isotherms are found to be highly con-
centrated near the wavy wall at both the high and low Ra. It was
observed that the length of the circulation cells increases with
the inclination angle of the enclosure with the horizontal axis. In
addition, the aspect ratio of the enclosure was also found to largely
affect the thermal and flow fields within the enclosure. Overall, it
was concluded that the heat transfer rate increases with the aspect
ratio and Rayleigh number. It was also found that the maximum
heat transfer rate was obtained for the maximum value of aspect
ratio (A ¼ 4) and inclination angle (90o ).
Adjlout et al. [144] numerically studied the effect of the hot
wavy wall on the laminar natural convection in an inclined square
cavity using the controlling parameters such as the inclination
angles and number of undulations. The right hot wavy wall was
maintained at a constant temperature, T h while the left cold wall
was kept at constant temperature, T c (see Fig. 19). All the other
walls were insulated. Two different geometrical configurations
were used in the present study involving one undulation (Fig. 19
(i)) and three undulations (Fig. 19(ii)) of the right wall. The govern-
ing equations [basic governing equations as given in Eqs. (1a)–(1d)
are modified for the inclined cavity and obtained in the vorticity-
velocity form] were solved using the finite difference method.
The tests were carried out for different inclination angles
(0 6 u 6 180 ), undulation amplitudes (0:05 6 k 6 0:08) and Ray-
leigh numbers (103 6 Ra 6 106 ) at Pr ¼ 0:71. It is interesting to
observe that a pair of the symmetric fluid circulation cells appear
in the upper and lower halves of the enclosure for the cavities with
one undulation at the higher Ra. The isotherms are also found to be
perpendicular to the insulated walls and almost all the isotherms
are parallel to each other depicting large zones of stratification
(Fig. 19(i)). As the inclination angle between the cavity and X-
axis increases, the fluid circulation cells in the top and bottom half
of the enclosure combine and form a large primary fluid circulation
cell with multiple vortices. This results in the slight distortion of

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36 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Fig. 19. Streamlines (w) and isotherms (h) at Rayleigh number, Ra ¼ 105 and Prandtl number, Pr ¼ 0:71 for various angles (/) (i) one undulation (ii) three undulations [144].
(figures are reproduced from Adjlout et al. [144] with permission from Elsevier).

the isotherms, near the central region of the complex enclosure. In
addition, the primary fluid circulation cell with single vortex is
observed at the high Ra (Fig. 19(i)). This promotes considerable
thermal mixing near the core of the enclosure as seen from the
large zone of uniform temperature near the core (Fig. 19(i)). As
the number of undulations along the right wall increases to 3, three
pairs of the fluid circulation cells are observed in the top, middle
and bottom halves of the enclosure (Fig. 19(ii)). The vertical and
wavy isotherms are observed within the enclosure, at very low
inclination angle (Fig. 19(ii)) for the greater number of undulations
(Fig. 19(ii)). Note that, the waviness of the isotherms near the wavy
right wall is higher than those observed near the left wall for the
geometry with three undulations on the right wall (Fig. 19(ii)).
For the maximum inclination angle and three undulations, a pri-
mary fluid circulation cell is observed in the enclosure, along with
the tiny secondary circulation cells near the bottom left corners of
the enclosure. Note that, the presence of the secondary circulation
cells near the left halves results in the stronger compression of iso-
therms along the left wall and hence, the larger thermal gradients
are observed along the left wall especially for the higher inclination
angles (u ¼ 180 ). Based on the flow features and temperature dis-
tributions in the enclosure, it was finally concluded that an
increase in the undulation number on the hot wall increases the
heat transfer rate for the higher inclination angle.
Ridouane and Campo [145] performed the numerical tests to
analyze natural convection within the air (Pr ¼ 0:71) filled circular
cavity inscribed in a square cavity (enclosure 2). In addition, a
square cavity (enclosure 1) and a circular cavity (enclosure 3) have
also been included in the analysis. The finite volume method was
used to solve the governing equations (Eqs. (1a)–(1d)). The left
and right vertical walls of the cavities were maintained at temper-
ature, T h and T c , respectively. The top and bottom walls of the
enclosure were considered to be adiabatic. Note that, at the low
Ra, the isotherms near the walls are parallel, whereas the iso-

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 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
therms near the core of the enclosures are distorted. It is interest-
ing to observe that at the high Ra (Ra ¼ 106 ), the single vortex as
observed at the low Ra has been replaced with two vortices, in
the lower right and upper left corners in the enclosures, depicting
the enhanced buoyancy force at the high Ra. Note that, the iso-
therms are nearly horizontal in the middle region of the enclosure
depicting the dominance of convection at the high Ra. Overall, it
was concluded that for all the Rayleigh numbers (Ra), the circular
cavities provide the higher heat transfer rates compared to the
square cavities.
Dalal and Das [146] presented the effect of the non-uniform
heating of the bottom wall on natural convection in a two-
dimensional cavity with a wavy right vertical wall. The bottom
wall was heated by a spatially varying temperature and the other
three walls were kept at a constant lower temperature. A semi-
implicit method was used to couple the momentum and continuity
equations (Eqs. (3a)–(3d)) and the QUICK scheme was imple-
mented in approximating the convective terms for both the
momentum and energy equations. The numerical studies were car-
ried out for three different undulations and different Rayleigh
numbers (10 6 Ra 6 106 ) for a constant Prandtl number
(Pr ¼ 0:71). The presence of the undulation in the right wall was
found to affect both the local heat transfer rate and flow field.
Due to the conduction dominant heat transfer, a minor variation
in flow patterns is observed for Ra ¼ 1
1000. On the other hand,
the significant variation in the fluid circulation pattern is observed
at the higher Ra (Ra P 1000) as the buoyancy forces are enhanced
and the heat transfer within the enclosure is mostly convection
dominant. Due to the waviness of the right wall, the asymmetric
fluid circulation cells are observed and the intensity of streamfunc-
tions is found to be different for both the circulation cells. It is also
observed that the size of the right fluid circulation cell increases
with Ra whereas the left fluid circulation cell squeezes towards
the left halves of the enclosure. In addition, the isothermal lines
are found to be distorted at Ra ¼ 105 and Ra ¼ 106 due to the influ-
ence of increased convection current. It is observed that during the
conduction dominant regime (Ra ¼ 103 ), the average Nusselt num-
ber increases with the number of undulations. However, as the
convection mode of heat transfer becomes dominant with Ra, the
average Nusselt number decreases within the undulated
enclosures.
Further, Oztop et al. [147] reported the effects of the volumetric
heat sources on natural convection heat transfer and flow struc-
tures in a wavy-walled enclosure filled with air (Pr ¼ 0:71). The
vertical walls of the enclosure were assumed to be differentially
heated whereas the top and bottom wavy walls were considered
to be adiabatic. The streamfunction–vorticity formulation (Eq.
(6a)) and the energy equation (Eq. (6b)) with the internal heat gen-
eration are solved using the finite volume method. The diffusion
term in the vorticity and energy equations is approximated by a
second-order central difference scheme. Both the internal (RaI ),
external Rayleigh numbers (RaE ) and the amplitude of the wavy
sinusoidal walls (a ¼ 0:8
1:1) were the effective parameters. It
is interesting to observe that the ratio of RaI =RaE (RaI =RaE ¼ 1
and 10) has the considerable influence on the flow and tempera-
ture distributions within the enclosures for the various amplitudes
(a) of the sinusoidal walls. At RaI ¼ 104 and RaE ¼ 104 , the fluid
within the enclosure forms a large primary flow circulation cell
with multiple vortices and the intensity of streamfunction is also
lesser. The isotherms on the side walls display larger thermal gra-
dients along those regions. On the other hand, at RaI ¼ 105 and
RaE ¼ 104 , the internal heat generation dominates over the exter-
nal heat heat generation and two separate fluid circulation cells
are observed within the enclosure. A weak cell is located near
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37
the left top corner and that circulates in the counter-clockwise
direction. The other cell turns in the clockwise direction and its
shape fills the entire geometry. It is interesting to observe that
the isotherms are distorted in the regions where the primary fluid
circulation cell is present whereas the isotherms are parallel to the
left wall, near the region where the weak fluid circulation cell was
present. As the amplitude of the wavy wall increases from 0.8 to
1.1, the intensity of the fluid circulation cells increases (Figure not
shown). In addition, the multi-cellular fluid circulation cell slowly
transforms into a unicellular fluid circulation cell, with the ampli-
tude of the wavy wall (Figure not shown). It is also interesting to
observe that the flow rate increases at the throat due to the narrow
region in the central portion of the enclosure and the isotherms are
almost diagonal at the throat, at lower amplitude of the wavy wall
(a). In addition, it was also observed that fluid flow separates near
the central region of the enclosures, at the high RaI =RaE . Overall, it
was concluded that the thermal gradients along the side walls are
higher for the enclosure with the larger wavy-wall amplitude and
hence, the heat transfer rates are found to be higher for the case
with high wavy-wall amplitude (Figure not shown). It was also
inferred that the direction of the heat transport depends strongly
on the ratio of the internal Rayleigh number (RaI ) to the external
Rayleigh numbers (RaE ).
Das and Mahmud [148] investigated the effect of the
amplitude-wavelength ratio on the fluid flow and temperature dis-
tribution within a isothermal wavy walled enclosure. The top wavy
wall was maintained at a higher temperature compared to the bot-
tom wavy wall whereas the vertical walls were considered as adi-
abatic. The integral forms of the governing equations (Eqs. (1a)–
(1d)) were solved numerically using the finite volume method.
The computations were carried out for various Grashof numbers
(103
107 ) and amplitude-wavelength ratios (0
0:15). Note that,
the Prandtl number of the fluid was considered as 1 and the aspect
ratio of the enclosure was maintained at 4 for all the cases. At the
high Gr (Gr P 104 ), the core of the fluid circulation cells is found to
be elongated and the intensity of the streamfunction is also found
to increase. At Gr ¼ 104 , due to the onset of the convection, iso-
therms tend to swirl and distort throughout the enclosure. Note
that, two hot spots are observed at the bottom wall whereas three
hot spots are observed near the top wall. In addition, multiple fluid
circulation cells with four vortices are observed within the com-
plex enclosure, due to the comparatively higher buoyancy effects.
The strength of the fluid circulation cells also increases signifying
the enhanced convection within the enclosure at the high Gr. It
may also be noted that, the multi-cellular flow patterns turns into
a bi-cellular flow at Gr ¼ 106 . It is noteworthy to mention that the
high convection current shifts the core of each vortex towards the
adiabatic wall of the cavity. Consequently, the periodic distortion
features of the isotherms disappear and hot spots are observed to
occupy nearly the entire bottom wall. Hence, a large zone in the
middle portions of the enclosure is maintained at an uniform tem-
perature. It was also reported that at the lower Gr, the effect of the
amplitude-wavelength ratio is significant. However, at the higher
Gr, this effect is very small. The heat transfer rate is higher at the
lower Gr when the amplitude-wavelength ratio increases from
zero to higher values. However, further increase of the
amplitude-wavelength ratio shows the negligible effect on the
average heat transfer rate.
Ashjaee et al. [149] experimentally and numerically studied the
free convection along an isothermal vertical wavy surface. Experi-
ments were carried out at three different amplitude-wavelength
ratios (a = 0:05; 0:1 and 0:2) and for various Ra (2:9  105

5:8  105 ). The right wall and right half of the bottom wall of
the enclosure were maintained adiabatic whereas the left and
38 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
top walls were maintained at isothermally cold conditions in the
presence of the hot wavy wall. A finite-volume based code was
developed in order to solve the basic governing equations (Eqs.
(1a)–(1d) are modified for the inclined cavity) and the simulation
results were also verified with the experimental data. At the high
Ra, the periodic behavior of the local heat transfer coefficient is
observed and the periodicity is identical to the wavelength of the
sinusoidal surface. It is also observed that the locations of the crest
and trough of the local heat transfer coefficients for the different
amplitude-wavelength ratio (a) are the same. However, they are
observed to shift upstream of the crests and troughs of the wavy
surface. It can also be seen that the heat transfer rates are large
near the portions of the wavy surface facing downward the flow
as the velocity gradients along those regions are significantly large.
In contrast, the heat transfer coefficients are found to be lesser for
the portions of the surface facing upward the flow since the veloc-
ity gradient is significantly smaller. Overall, it was concluded that
the average heat transfer coefficient was found to decrease with
the amplitude-wavelength ratio. Finally, the experimental data
were correlated with a single equation which gave the local Nus-
selt number along the surface as a function of the amplitude-
wavelength ratio and Rayleigh number.
Triveni and Panua [150] carried out laminar natural convection
studies in an isosceles right-angled triangular cavity consisting of a
caterpillar (C)-curve shape wavy isothermally hot bottom wall.
Three boundary conditions were considered in the present work
(Case 1: cold vertical wall and adiabatic inclined wall, case 2: cold
inclined wall and adiabatic vertical wall, case 3: cold inclined and
vertical walls). The governing equations (Eqs. (1a)–(1d)) along with
the corresponding boundary conditions are solved by finite volume
method. The effect of the various parameters such as the number
of undulations of the bottom wall (2 6 N 6 5) and Rayleigh num-
ber (105 6 Ra 6 107 ) on the fluid flow and temperature distribu-
tion within the cavity were numerically studied using FLUENT
6.3. At Ra ¼ 105 and N ¼ 5, a single rotating fluid circulation cell
is formed for the cases 1 and 2 whereas, two fluid circulation cells
are observed for the case 3 (see Fig. 20(i)). It is also found that the
magnitude of the fluid circulation cell is found to be higher for the
case 3 compared to the cases 1 and 2 (see Fig. 20(i)). The isotherms
at Ra ¼ 105 and N ¼ 5 demonstrate that they originate from the
left bottom corner of the cavity and spread throughout the cavity
for the case 1 while, the isotherms are initiated from the right cor-
ner of the cavity for the case 2 (see Fig. 20(i)). In contrast, the iso-
therms are plume shaped and they are dispersed throughout the
cavity for the case 3 (see Fig. 20(i)). As N reduces to 4, the strength
of the fluid circulation cell is enhanced and two fluid circulations
are observed in contrast to N ¼ 5 (see Fig. 20(ii)). At N 6 3, the
intensity of the fluid circulation cell decreases and an unicellular
fluid circulation cell encompasses the entire triangular enclosure.
The isotherm distribution for the various values of N depict that
the thermal mixing is larger near the core and hence, a large zone
near the central core is maintained at uniform temperature in all
the cases (see Fig. 20(ii)). This further leads to the isotherms to
be largely compressed towards the hot bottom and cold side walls
of the cavity for all the cases (see Fig. 20(ii)). As Ra increases from
105 to 107 , the strength of the fluid circulation cell is largely
enhanced common to all the cases and hence, thermal mixing near
the core further increases. Note that, the vortex of the fluid circu-
lation cell expands horizontally for the higher values of Ra. Conse-
quently, the Nusselt number illustrates that the heat transfer rate
increases steeply with Ra. On the other hand, Nu is found to be
almost invariant with the number of undulations (N), especially
at higher Ra.
The heatline studies for the visualization of natural convection
within a complicated cavity were also carried out by Dalal and
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Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
Das [151]. The boundary conditions in this work are similar to
the earlier work [146]. The integral forms of the governing equa-
tions (Eqs. (3a)–(3d) and (36)) are solved numerically using the
finite-volume method. The results were obtained for
Ra ¼ 100
106 ; Pr ¼ 0:71, and undulation amplitude of 0
0:1. At
the low Ra, the streamfunctions are qualitatively similar to those
observed in an earlier work [146], irrespective of the undulation
amplitude. In addition, at the high undulation amplitude and Ra,
the upper portion of the fluid circulation cell in the right half of
the enclosure is found to be elongated towards the wavy wall sim-
ilar to the earlier work [146]. Note that, as the relative size of the
cells changes with the undulation amplitude, the isotherms are
observed to have a skewness towards the left vertical wall as the
amplitude of the wavy wall is increased. In contrast to the earlier
work [146], the heat flow visualization within the complicated cav-
ity has been carried out for the present work. Note that, similar to
the streamlines, asymmetric heat circulation cells are observed
irrespective of the undulation-amplitude ratio. As the
undulation-amplitude increases, the size of the heat circulation
cell occurring at the left halves reduces whereas the size of the
cells at the right halves of the enclosure increases. Overall, it was
concluded that the heat transfer rate by the left and top walls
increase with Ra. Also, the heat transfer rate was found to be
slightly affected by the presence of undulations on the right wall.
In another study, Biswal and Basak [152] carried out the
numerical computations within the differentially heated
enclosures involving curved side walls at various Prandtl
numbers (Pr ¼ 0:015
1000) for various Rayleigh numbers
(Ra ¼ 103
106 ) involving various cases based on the convexity/
concavity of the curved side walls. The left wall of the enclosure
was maintained isothermally hot and the right wall was kept
isothermally cold along with insulated horizontal wall. The mass,
momentum and energy balance equations (Eqs. (3a)–(3d) and
(36)) with boundary conditions are solved using the Galerkin finite
element method. Comparative studies of the concave and convex
cases show that the heat and flow distributions are found to be
affected significantly by the wall curvature for the concave cases.
In convex cases, the significant variations in the thermal and flow
characteristics are not observed for various wall curvatures. At
the low Ra, only end-to-end heatlines are observed in the enclosure
for the concave cases, whereas in the convex cases both the end-to-
end and closed loop heatlines are observed even at the low Ra. As
the wall curvature increases, the magnitude of streamlines and
intensity of the closed loop heatlines are found to be decreasing
in the concave cases. On the other hand, the increase in the wall cur-
vature in convex cases results in the enhancement of magnitudes of
streamlines and closed loop heatlines. At Ra ¼ 105 and Pr ¼ 0:015,
the secondary fluid and heat flow circulation cells are observed
within the enclosure along the concave wall. In contrast, the single
fluid flow and heat flow circulation cells are observed throughout
the enclosure except at the corner zones for all the cases of convex-
ities at Ra ¼ 105 and Pr ¼ 0:015. At the low Ra, the largest heat
transfer rate is observed for the concave cases whereas the heat
transfer rate is found to be significantly larger in the convex cases
at the high Ra for all Pr.
Mahmud and Islam [153] investigated natural convection and
entropy generation numerically within a differentially heated
wavy enclosure. The finite-volume method was used to solve the
governing differential equations [basic governing equations as
given in Eqs. (1a)–(1d) are modified for the inclined cavity] and
to evaluate the entropy generation terms (Eq. (38)). The numerical
computations were carried out for the different values of wave
ratio [defined as amplitude/average width (k ¼ 0
0:4)], height-
base aspect ratio (A ¼ 1:0
2:0), Rayleigh number (Ra ¼ 1
107 )
for fluids with Pr ¼ 0:7. The angle of the inclination (u) of the wavy
 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 39

Fig. 20. (i) Effect of various thermal boundary conditions (Case 1: cold vertical wall and adiabatic inclined wall, case 2: cold inclined wall and adiabatic vertical wall, case 3:
cold inclined and vertical walls) on the streamlines (w) and isotherm (h) distribution within the right angled triangular enclosure with number of undulations of the bottom
wall, N ¼ 5; d ¼ 0:05 (d ¼ h=w; d is the aspect ratio of the curvature) and Ra ¼ 105 for Pr ¼ 7:2; (ii) Effect of the number of undulations of the bottom wall (N) on the streamline
and isotherm distribution within the right angled triangular enclosure at Ra ¼ 106 for Pr ¼ 7:2. (figures are reproduced from Triveni and Panua [150] with permission from
Elsevier).

enclosure was also varied between 0
360 . The heat transfer
irreversibility and fluid friction irreversibility were numerically
evaluated using the Bejan number. Note that, a single fluid circula-
tion cell is observed for all the inclination angles except 90 and
 5
270 . The convection current is sufficiently strong at Ra ¼ 10
and that causes the convective distortion of isotherms. Note that,
the active zones of the entropy generation due to heat transfer
occur along the lower portion of the hot wall and upper portion
of the cold wall and these observations are similar to the results
obtained by Ilis et al. [76] within a square domain. Consequently,
the heat transfer rate is also found to be high near those regions.
Note that, for the enclosures with the inclination angle of
u ¼ 90 , a pair of symmetric fluid circulation cells are observed
in the upper and lower halves of the enclosure. However, the iso-
therms display parallel lines which depict conduction dominant
heat transfer, even at Ra ¼ 105 . Note that, the high velocity gradi-
ents are observed along the left and right regions of the wavy walls
for u ¼ 90 and therefore, those regions act as the zones of the high
entropy generation due to the fluid friction. On the other hand, an
unstable condition in fluid is achieved for the inclination angle,
u ¼ 270 and the total entropy generation along the wavy walls
were found to be negligible. The average heat transfer rate dis-
played a wavy variation with the angle of inclination of the cavity
and the heat transfer rate was found to be minimum for u ¼ 90 .

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40 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
Overall, the entropy generation rate is lesser and the heat transfer
rate is optimum for the inclination angle corresponding to u ¼ 45
and 135 .
Mahmud and Fraser [154] examined natural convection and
entropy generation [basic governing equations as given in Eqs.
(1a)–(1d) and (39a) are modified for the inclined cavity] within a
wavy enclosure with adiabatic horizontal walls and side wavy
walls following the cosine profile. The right wall is maintained
isothermally hot whereas the left wall is maintained at isother-
mally cold conditions. Simulations were carried out for a wide
range of wave ratio (0
0:6), aspect ratio (1
4) and Rayleigh
number (10
107 ) for Pr ¼ 0:71. The fluid and temperature distri-
bution features within the enclosure are qualitatively similar to the
results obtained in the previous work [145]. The multiple vortices
are observed within the enclosure at the lower Ra. As Ra increases
from 102 to 104 , the buoyancy effect increases within the enclosure
and multiple vortices tend to merge into a single crescent shaped
vortex. Note that, the crescent shaped vortex shifts downwards
as Ra increases to 105 and the vortex tends to shift towards the left
wall leading to the large velocity gradients. At the higher Ra, iso-
therms are distorted near the central region of the enclosure and
they are found to be more intense near the wavy walls. Thus, the
large temperature gradients are observed in the vicinity of the
wavy walls depicting the entropy generation due to heat transfer.
As the aspect ratio and wave ratio of the enclosure increase, the
asymmetric core of the circulation occurring for the lower aspect
ratio and wave ratio change into a symmetric shaped core. Further,
the entropy generation number (the ratio of local entropy genera-
tion rate and characteristic entropy transfer rate) is plotted as a
function of Ra. It is found that in the conduction dominant regime,
the entropy generation number is nearly independent of Ra. The
entropy generation number increases sharply with Ra and the rate
of increase in the entropy generation number is found to be higher
in the regime beyond Ra P 102 . The Nusselt number plots display
that the heat transfer rate is invariant till Ra ¼ 103 and that
increases sharply in the convection dominant regime. Overall, the
enclosures without wavy walls were found to display the high heat
transfer rate with the minimum entropy generation rate.
Dagtekin et al. [155] performed a numerical study to investigate
the second law analysis due to the buoyancy-induced flow in a C-
shaped enclosure. The right upper and left vertical walls were
maintained isothermally cold whereas the bottom and top hori-
zontal walls were maintained adiabatic. Note that, the lower verti-
cal and horizontal walls [see Fig. 21] are maintained isothermally
hot (Fig. 21(i)(a–c)). The finite-volume method was used to solve
the governing differential equations (Eqs. (3a)–(3d)) and to evalu-
ate the entropy generation terms (Eq. (39a)). The effects of the geo-
metrical ratio and Rayleigh number on the entropy generation
were thoroughly investigated in their study. Streamlines, iso-
therms, entropy generation due to heat transfer and fluid friction
were illustrated for the various values of Ra (103
106 ), irre-
versibility distribution ratio (/D ¼ 10
5
10
3 ), step height
(0:25 6 h 6 0:75) and step width (0:25 6 w 6 0:75) for Pr ¼ 0:71.
Due to the uniform heating of the step, an anti-clockwise fluid cir-
culation cell of lesser intensity is observed over the forward step
(Fig. 21(i)(a–c)). On the other hand, the large clockwise recircula-
tion cell occupies the region between the left vertical walls and
front face of the step (Fig. 21(i)(a–c)). As Ra increases to 105 and
106 , the intensity and size of the fluid circulation cell increases
and isotherms are found to be largely compressed along the
isothermal walls resulting in large thermal gradients. The intense
convection also results in a large zone in the upper half of the
enclosure to be maintained at an uniform temperature. The
entropy generation is considerably high close to the isothermal
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Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
walls due to the fluid friction and heat transfer (Fig. 21(i)(a–c)).
Note that, the adiabatic walls are inactive for entropy generation
due to heat transfer. Further, it was observed that the change in
step height (h) and step width (w) largely affects the flow and ther-
mal characteristics within the enclosure. It was also found that at
low irreversibility ratios (/D ¼ 10
5 and 10
4 ), the entropy gener-
ation increases very slowly over a wide range of Ra. On the other
hand, the overall entropy generation increases rapidly for the
higher irreversibility ratios (/D ¼ 10
3 ). The overall heat transfer
rate was found to be highest for the case with h ¼ 0:75 and
w ¼ 0:25.
6.2. Porous media
Studies on the porous media filled wavy enclosures can be
found in a few earlier works [56,156–159]. Kumar et al. [156]
solved the coupled streamfunction-temperature equations govern-
ing the Darcian flow and convection process (Eqs. (9)–(11)) in a
fluid-saturated porous wavy enclosure with an isothermal sinu-
soidal bottom surface using the Bubnov Galerkin finite element
method. Note that, the bottom wavy wall is isothermally hot
whereas the top wall is maintained isothermally cold, along with
the adiabatic side walls. Numerical computations were carried
out in order to study the effect of the parameters such as wave
amplitude (a), number of waves per unit length (N), wave phase
(W p ), aspect ratio (A) and Rayleigh number (RaD ). At the high
RaD , the flow separation and reattachment on the wavy wall is
observed due to the change in the pressure gradient resulting from
the asymmetric geometric configuration. It is also observed that
the separation and reattachment points move closer to the leading
and trailing edges, respectively at the high RaD . In addition, several
distinct circulation zones also appear in the core of the domain due
to the local fluid movement near those regimes and consequently,
the wavy isotherms are observed near the core and bottom regions
of the enclosure. Note that, the secondary fluid circulation zones
hinder the heat transfer process within the enclosures. It is inter-
esting to observe that, as the amplitude of the wavy wall (a)
increases, the number of fluid circulation zones remains the same,
but the flow separates and reattaches on the bottom surface lead-
ing to the formation of separate fluid circulation cells in the wavy
domains. It is also observed that at small amplitudes, the flow in
the right half of the domain is more intense and at higher ampli-
tudes, the flow in the central circulation region is more intense.
Isotherms display extreme wavy nature, as the amplitude of the
undulation increases. Further, the global heat transfer rate within
the system was found to decrease with the amplitude and number
of waves per unit length. The marginal changes were observed in
the global heat flux with RaD and W p . It was finally concluded that
the sinusoidal bottom surface undulations of the isothermal wall of
a porous enclosure reduce the heat transfer rate in the system.
Misirlioglu et al. [157] numerically investigated the steady-
state free convection within a porous cavity involving two horizon-
tal straight walls and two vertical bent-wavy walls. The wavy walls
are assumed to follow a profile of the cosine curve. The horizontal
walls are maintained adiabatic, whereas the right undulated wall
was maintained at a hotter temperature compared to the left
undulated wall. The Darcy model based unsteady governing equa-
tions (Eqs. (14a)–(14c)) are solved numerically using the Galerkin
finite element method. The flow and heat transfer characteristics
(isothermal, streamlines and local and average Nusselt numbers)
within the enclosure are illustrated for a wide range of the Rayleigh
numbers (RaD ¼ 10
103 ), cavity aspect ratio (A ¼ 1
5) and sur-
face waviness parameter (k ¼ 0
0:6). It is interesting to observe
that the vortices of the primary fluid circulation cell for k ¼ 0 are
stretched near the core of the enclosure at the high RaD . As the sur-
 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx 41

Fig. 21. (i) Streamlines (w), isotherms (h), local entropy generation due to heat transfer (Sh ), and local entropy generation due to fluid friction (Sw ) for dimensionless height (h)
and length (w) of step h ¼ w ¼ 0:5 (a) Ra ¼ 103 , (b) Ra ¼ 104 and (c) Ra ¼ 105 [155]; (ii) isotherms (h) for various dimensionless height of the step (h) and width of the step ðwÞ
[(a) h ¼ 0:5 and w ¼ 0:75, (b) h ¼ 0:75 and w ¼ 0:5, (c) h ¼ 0:5 and w ¼ 0:25, and (d) h ¼ 0:75 and w ¼ 0:25] at Gr ¼ 104 , ratio of minimum to maximum nanoparticles,
R ¼ 0:001 in vertical annulus [169]. (figures are reproduced from Dagtekin et al. [155] and Dehnavi and Rezvani [169] with permission from Elsevier).

face waviness (k) increases, the detachment of the vortex leads to
the formation of multi cellular fluid circulation cells within the
enclosure (Fig. 22). As RaD increases, the strength of the fluid circu-
lation cell increases and streamlines near the core become more
elliptic in shape with increase in k due to enhanced buoyancy
effects. As a result, the isotherms are squeezed towards the side
walls and hence, large thermal gradients are observed in those
regions. It is interesting to observe that at the high RaD , irrespective
of k, the thickness of the thermal boundary layer is found to
increase towards the left bottom and right top corners of the enclo-
sure. This further depicts the formation of cold and hot spots near
the left bottom and right top corners of the enclosure, respectively.
Overall, it was concluded that the flow and thermal structures
were found to be highly dependent on the surface waviness and
cavity aspect ratio especially at the high Rayleigh numbers (RaD ).
Further, Misirlioglu et al. [158] used the unsteady Darcy flow
model with the Boussinesq approximation [basic governing equa-
tions as given in Eqs. (14a)–(14c) are modified for the inclined cav-
ity] in order to investigate numerically natural convection within
an inclined wavy cavity filled with a porous medium. The bottom
wavy wall is hot while the top wavy wall is maintained isother-
mally cold in the presence of the adiabatic side walls. The numer-
ical computations were carried out for various values of inclination
angle (0 6 u 6 90 ), Rayleigh number (10 6 RaD 6 103 ), aspect
ratio (1 6 A 6 3) and surface waviness parameter (0 6 k 6 0:3).
The streamline patterns display that, at an inclination angle greater

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42 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Fig. 22. Isotherms (h) and streamlines (w) at Rayleigh number RaD ¼ 10 for aspect ratio, A ¼ 4 and surface waviness, k ¼ 0; 0:3; 0:4; 0:5, and 0:6 (left to right) [157]. (figures are
reproduced from Misirlioglu et al. [157] with permission from Elsevier).

than 45 , stable and unicellular fluid circulation cells are observed
within the enclosure for all the cases. For the lower inclination
angles (u 6 30 ), the flow behavior highly depends on the surface
waviness parameter (k). It is interesting to observe that, the unicel-
lular structure prevails for the low waviness values (k ¼ 0 and 0:1)
whereas the flow behavior is observed to be complicated for the
higher surface waviness values (k ¼ 0:2 and 0:3). Note that,
asymmetric fluid circulation cells occur for the horizontal enclo-
sure (u ¼ 0 ) at the low RaD . It is observed that, the number of fluid
circulation rolls increases with RaD for the flat walls (u ¼ 0 ). Note
that, three parallel fluid circulation zones occur at the high RaD
within the horizontal enclosure for the flat walls. In addition, the
fluid circulation rolls are found to be distorted and disoriented
with respect to the horizontal walls at the high RaD . Overall, it
was concluded that the flow and thermal structures were found
to be highly dependent on the surface waviness for the inclination
angles less than 45 , especially at RaD ¼ 103 .
Chen et al. [56] studied the free convection within a wavy por-
ous enclosure with isothermal wavy walls and adiabatic horizontal
walls. The wavy right wall is maintained at isothermally hotter
temperature compared to the left wall. They analyzed the flow
characteristics within the cavity by solving the Darcy–Brinkman–
Forchheimer model based governing equations (Eqs. (23a)–(23d))
using the finite volume method. The studies were carried out for
a range of surface waviness (k ¼ 0
1:8), aspect ratio (A ¼ 1
5)
and Darcy–Rayleigh number (RaD ¼ 10
105 ). At the higher aspect
ratio, it is interesting to observe a main recirculating flow in the
central region and two smaller recirculations at the top and bottom
regions of the enclosure. On the other hand, at the high RaD , a pair
of recirculation loops is observed near the middle regime due to
the intense convection. It is also observed that the isotherms are
distorted near the middle regime of the enclosure and they are
compressed towards the side walls depicting large thermal gradi-
ents at the high RaD . Note that, the distortion of isotherms and
the flow structure at the high RaD is significant especially for high
surface waviness values (k). Thus, similar to the previous works
[118,157,158], the surface-waviness parameter (k) is found to have
profound effect on the flow and temperature distributions within

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 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
the wavy enclosure. Overall, among all the parameters, RaD was
found to affect significantly the streamline and temperature distri-
butions within the enclosures.
Later, Khanafer et al. [159] reported the non-Darcian effects on
natural convection in a porous wavy enclosure. The left wavy wall
is maintained at a hotter temperature compared to the right vertical
wall whereas the top and bottom horizontal walls were maintained
adiabatic. Note that, the porous medium is considered to be homo-
geneous, isotropic and is saturated with fluid which is in local ther-
modynamic equilibrium with the solid matrix of the porous
medium. The transport equations (Eqs. (9), (22a) and (22b)) were
solved using the finite element formulation based on the Galerkin
method of weighted residuals. Different flow models for porous
media such as the Brinkman-extended Darcy (Eqs. (17a) and
(17b)), Forchheimer-extended Darcy (Eqs. (15a) and (15b)), and
the other generalized flow models were also considered. The com-
putations were carried out to study the impact of amplitude of the
wavy surface (0 6 A 6 0:25), Rayleigh number (104 6 Ra 6 106 ),
and number of undulations (0 6 N 6 3) on the flow structure and
heat transfer characteristics. Note that, all the results have been
obtained for Da ¼ 10
2 . Due to the isothermal heating of the left
wall, fluid forms a primary fluid circulation cell which encompasses
the entire enclosure. It is interesting to observe that the fluid circu-
lation near the core of the enclosure is elongated along the horizon-
tal direction at the low A. As A increases, the elongation of the fluid
circulation cell near the core decreases. In addition, the fluid flow is
found to be negligible towards the top and bottom corners along
the left wall and thus, the hot spots are formed near those regions.
Due to the higher velocity gradients near the wavy surface, the
higher local heat flux variation is observed for higher values of
the amplitude of the wavy surface and this subsequently increases
the heat transfer rate. Similar to the previous work [56], Ra is found
to have large effects on the flow and temperature distributions
within the enclosure. It is interesting to observe that the heat flux
profile is highly oscillating for the higher values of N whereas the
trend of the heat flux profile is found to be sluggish for the lower
values of N. Note that, the heat flux is maximum near the bottom
of the vertical wall as the clockwise rotating fluid carries energy
from the left wavy wall leading to lesser thermal gradients. Further,
it was also concluded that the average Nusselt number profile for
the Darcy–Brinkman model and the generalized model are nearly
similar. However, the Darcy–Brinkmanship–Forchheimer model
was found to overestimate the average Nusselt number in contrast
to the other two models.
Basak et al. [160] analyzed natural convection in a porous right
angled triangular enclosure with a convex/concave hypotenuse
using the Bejan’s heatline concept. The cavity was subjected to
an isothermal cold left wall, isothermal hot curved right wall,
and an adiabatic bottom wall. The Darcy–Brinkman model based
governing equations (Eqs. (23a)–(23d)) and heatfunction equation
(Eq. (36)) are solved by the Galerkin finite element method. The
nature of the fluid flow and thermal behavior within the wavy
enclosure has been illustrated via streamlines, isotherms and
heatlines. The numerical studies were carried out for a wide range
of Darcy number (Da ¼ 10
5
10) and Prandtl number
(Pr ¼ 0:01
7:2) at a fixed Rayleigh number (Ra ¼ 106 ). The
strength of the fluid circulation cell is higher for the triangular
enclosure with the convex hypotenuse compared to the concave
hypotenuse, irrespective of Da and Pr. Further, the heatlines give
an in depth view of the energy flow within the enclosure. The
end-to-end heatlines are observed to be smooth and parallel to
the bottom wall indicating the conduction dominant heat transfer
within the cavity at the low Da for all the cases. The heat flow cir-
culation cells with very less magnitudes are found in the bottom
portion of the enclosure for all the cases at the low Da. In all the
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Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
43
cases, the magnitudes of heatfunction are significantly high at
the top edge of the enclosure due to the temperature singularity
at the hot and cold junction. At the high Da, the intensity and size
of the heatline circulation cell increase. The intense heat circula-
tion cells occupy almost the entire part of the cavity for all the
cases indicating the high thermal mixing. The local heat transfer
rate increases along the left wall and attains highest value near
the top edge of the enclosure for all the cases. The overall heat
transfer rate from the hot wall increases with both Ra and Da
and can be further explained based on the dense heatlines near
the hot regimes especially at the high Da.
Mahmud and Fraser [161] numerically investigated the nature of
heat transfer and entropy generation for natural convection in a
two-dimensional circular section enclosure filled with the porous
media. The Darcy momentum equations and entropy generation
equation (Eqs. (14a)–(14c), (40) and (47)) are used to model the por-
ous media and Eqs. (14a)–(14c) have been solved using the control
volume based finite volume method. In this study, the effect of RaD
on the entropy generation in the porous media is studied in details.
The overall results are illustrated in terms of the streamlines and
Bejan number contours. At the low RaD , the streamlines are concen-
tric circles except near the center region of the cavity, where the
elliptic core is observed. As RaD increases, the convection current
develops within the cavity and the isothermal lines start to swirl.
In addition, the streamlines near the core of the circular enclosure
are found to be elongated towards the horizontal direction. This
results in the compression of the isotherms and streamlines
towards the side walls. Hence, the large velocity and temperature
gradients are found along the walls. This can be further clarified
from the local Bejan number contours which clearly signify the large
heat transfer and fluid friction irreversibilities along the side walls
at the high RaD . Further, it was found that for the conduction regime,
both the average Nusselt number and entropy generation number
are independent of the Rayleigh number. In the convection domi-
nant regime, these parameters show an increasing trend with the
Rayleigh number (RaD ). Finally, it was inferred that the magnitude
of the overall entropy generation rate is higher near the walls in con-
trast to the central core regions of the cavity.
Natural convection in a two-dimensional porous right-angled
triangular enclosure with an undulated left wall has been analyzed
numerically by Bharadwaj and co-workers [162–164]. In all the
studies, the bottom wall was kept at sinusoidal temperature. It
may be noted that the undulated wall and the inclined walls were
maintained at isothermal cold temperature in the first two studies
[162,163] whereas the inclined wall was maintained adiabatic and
the undulated wall was maintained at isothermal cold temperature
in the last study [164]. The unsteady forms of the governing equa-
tions (Eqs. (17a)–(17c)) were solved using the finite-difference
technique. The effect of the various parameters such as Rayleigh
number (Ra ¼ 103
106 ), Darcy number (Da = 10
4 -10
2 ) and the
undulations on the left wall has been investigated in detail. It is
observed that at the low Da (Da ¼ 10
4 ) and Ra (Ra ¼ 103
104 ),
the heat transfer irreversibilities ðSh Þ dominate over fluid fiction
irreversibilities ðSw Þ whereas at the high Ra (Ra ¼ 105
106 ), the
irreversibility due to heat transfer and fluid friction are nearly sim-
ilar and the total entropy generation increases with Da within the
cavity [162–164]. Also, the fluid friction irreversibility increases
rapidly with Da at constant Ra. At the high Da ðDa ¼ 10
2 Þ, the total
entropy generation due to the fluid friction dominates within the
cavity for the high Ra (Ra ¼ 105 and 106 ) in contrast to the low
Ra (Ra ¼ 103 and 104 ) (Fig. 23(i)(a–d)). It is observed that, the heat
transfer rate increases significantly for the undulated left wall
compared to the non-undulated wall irrespective of Ra and Da
(Fig. 23(ii)). Also, Sw increases abruptly for higher Ra and Da in
44 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx

Fig. 23. (i) Local entropy generation due to heat transfer (Sh ) and fluid flow (Sw ) for irreversibility distribution ratio, / ¼ 10
2 , Darcy number, Da ¼ 10
4 and Pr ¼ 0:71 at
various Rayleigh number, (a) Ra ¼ 103 , (b) Ra ¼ 104 , (c) Ra ¼ 105 , (d) Ra ¼ 106 , (ii) comparison of the maximum Nusselt number (Numax ) for undulation case () and no-
undulation case (N) for Da ¼ 10
2 on left wavy wall for Pr ¼ 0:71 [162]. (figures are reproduced from Bharadwaj and Dalal [162] with permission from Elsevier).

the undulated wall case compared to the no-undulation case. In
contrast, the undulations on the left wall do not have the signifi-
cant effect on the heat transfer irreversibility.
6.3. Nanofluids
Abu-Nada et al. [165] investigated the effect of various nanoflu-
ids on the heat transfer enhancement during natural convection in
a horizontal concentric annuli. The effect of the various parameters
such as Ra (Ra ¼ 103
105 ), / (0 6 / 6 0:1) and L=D
(L=D ¼ 0:2
0:8) ratio was studied in detail. Note that, Pr of the
base fluid was maintained constant at 6:2 for all the case studies.
The water-based nanofluid containing various volume fractions
of the Al2O3 nanoparticles was used in the present study. The gov-
erning equations (Eqs. (24a)–(24d)) were solved using the finite
volume method. It is observed that the higher heat transfer rate
is achieved around the inner cylinder surface except in the plume
region at the high values of L=D ratio. For the low Ra, the addition
of the Al2O3 nanoparticles results in the increase in the Nusselt
number around the inner cylinder surface. As Ra increases, the
effect of the Al2O3 nanoparticles on the heat transfer rate within
the cavities is less pronounced. In addition, the magnitude of the
Nusselt number is observed to decrease for L=D ¼ 0:4 and the
Al2O3 nanoparticles show the reverse effect on the Nusselt number,
especially for L=D ¼ 0:4. It was also observed that the increase in
volume fraction of the Al2O3 nanoparticles results in the enhanced
heat transfer at the core where the intensity of the plume was
observed to be higher.
Abouali and Falahatpisheh [166] numerically investigated natu-
ral convection of the Al2O3 nanofluid in a vertical annuli. The ver-
tical walls are maintained at the constant temperature and the
horizontal walls are adiabatic. The effect of nanofluids on natural
convection is investigated as a function of the geometrical and
physical parameters for various particle fractions (/ ¼ 0
0:06),
aspect ratios (1 6 A 6 5) and Gr (103 6 Gr 6 105 ). The cylindrical
coordinates representations of the governing equations (Eqs.
(24a)–(24d)) are integrated over each control volume to obtain a
set of linear algebraic equations which were further solved by

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 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
the SIMPLE algorithm. The final results were illustrated in terms of
the Nusselt number and they were also validated with the experi-
mental data. The variations of the Nusselt number for various vol-
ume fractions of nanoparticles vs aspect ratios illustrate that the
maximum Nusselt number occurs at the aspect ratio, 1:8 and 1:2
for Gr ¼ 103 and 104 , respectively. In addition, the Nusselt number
is a decreasing function of the aspect ratio for Gr P 103 . It may be
noted that for the higher Grashof number, the decrease of the Nus-
selt number due to the nanofluid compared to the base fluid is
more pronounced. A correlation for the ratio of the local Nusselt
number (Nubf ) for the base fluid and local Nusselt number for the
nanofluid (Nunf ) demonstrates that the ratio follows a monotoni-
cally and linearly decreasing function of the particle fraction.
Arefmanesh et al. [167] studied the heat transfer and flow char-
acteristics in a two-square duct annuli filled with TiO2-water nano-
fluid with an isothermally hot inner boundary and cold outer
boundary. The outer duct is maintained at a constant cold temper-
ature while the inner duct is kept at a differentially higher constant
temperature. The governing equations (Eqs. (24a)–(24d)) in terms
of the primitive variables are solved using the finite volume
method and the SIMPLER algorithm. The effects of the Rayleigh
number (103 6 Ra 6 106 ), aspect ratio of the annulus
(0:25 6 A 6 0:75), and volume fraction of the nanoparticles
(/ ¼ 0
0:04) on the fluid flow and heat transfer are investigated
in detail. The fluid is gradually heated by the sides of the inner
square and consequently, the fluid starts to expand as it moves
upward. Subsequently, the fluid is cooled by the sides of the outer
square and contracts as it moves downward. Hence, the counter-
rotating anti-clockwise and clockwise fluid circulations, are formed
in the left and the right halves of the annulus, respectively. Due to
the symmetry of the square geometry, these counter-rotating
eddies are symmetric with respect to the vertical centerline of
the squares. At the low A and Ra, the streamlines are found to be
evenly distributed throughout the enclosure. As Ra increases, the
streamlines become more densely packed adjacent to the sides of
the inner and the outer squares and the strength of the fluid circu-
lation cell also increases in contrast to the low Ra. Distinct thermal
boundary layers are formed around the inner square as well as
along the sides of the outer square at the high Ra. As A increases,
the streamlines and isotherms become more densely packed
within the annulus. It may be noted that the volume fraction of
the nanoparticles (/) has the negligible effect on the fluid flow
and temperature distribution at the low Ra whereas the increase
in / significantly affects the fluid flow and temperature distribu-
tion within the enclosure at the high Ra. The average Nusselt num-
ber increases monotonically with Ra irrespective of the volume
fraction. However, the magnitude of the Nusselt number decreases
with the volume fraction.
Natural convective heat transfer in a C type enclosure filled
with Cu–water nanofluid was investigated by Mahmoodi and
Hashemi [168]. The top, left and bottom walls of the C-shaped
enclosure were maintained at a high temperature whereas the
square rid was maintained at a cold temperature. The small verti-
cal wall joining the rid and the bottom and top walls are main-
tained at adiabatic conditions. The governing equations (Eqs.
(24a)–(24d)) were solved using the control volume approach. The
rate of heat transfer within the C-shaped enclosure was thoroughly
investigated for the various parameters such as Rayleigh number
(Ra ¼ 103
106 ), the aspect ratio of the C-shaped enclosure
(A ¼ 0:2
0:8) and the volume fraction of the Cu nanoparticles
(0 6 / 6 1). At the low A, the fluid gets heated by the hot walls
and expands as it moves upward. Consequently, the fluid is cooled
by the cold rib and compressed as it moves downward. Hence, a
clockwise fluid circulation cell is established encompassing the
whole portion of the enclosure. As A increases, the area of the
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45
square rib increases and the primary fluid circulation cell in the left
half of the C-shaped enclosure gets compressed. Consequently, the
small amount of fluid gets detached and forms weak secondary
fluid circulation cell under the cold rib. As A increases further,
the multicellular flow pattern is absent under the cold rib due to
the existence of small gap between the hot bottom wall and the
cold rib which limits the flow movement. It may be noted that,
as the aspect ratio of the cavity (A) increases, the isotherms are
evenly distributed on the top of the cold rib. However, the iso-
therms are found to be highly distorted near the left half of the
enclosure for all the aspect ratios. For the lower aspect ratio
(A ¼ 0:2) and higher Ra, the core of the flow cell moves downward
resulting in more densely packed streamlines at the bottom of the
enclosure. In addition, distorted parabolic shaped isotherms are
observed at the high Ra and low A. On the other hand, a single fluid
circulation cell of the high intensity is observed in the left half of
the enclosure for the higher A and Ra, whereas flow circulations
are absent in the right half. Note that, isotherms are smooth and
parallel in the right half of the enclosure whereas they are found
to be distorted in the left half of the enclosure. It was further
observed that the average Nusselt number increases with the
nanoparticles volume fraction for all Ra and A. In addition, the
effect of the nanoparticles on the enhancement of heat transfer
at the low Ra is more significant than that at the high Ra.
Fluid flow and heat transfer in a C shaped enclosure for the dif-
ferentially heated side walls was studied by Dehnavi and Rezvani
[169] using Al2O3 as the nanoparticles. The step of the C-shaped
enclosure is maintained as isothermally hot and the other two ver-
tical isothermal walls were maintained cold while the top and bot-
tom walls were maintained adiabatic. The heat transfer and fluid
flow within the enclosure are thoroughly investigated for various
parameters such as the non-uniform nanoparticles size, mean
nanoparticle diameter, nanoparticle volume fraction, Grashof
number (Gr), dimensionless height of the step (h), and dimension-
less width of the step (w). The momentum and energy balance
equations (Eqs. (24a)–(24d)) have been solved numerically using
the finite volume approach. The streamline and isotherm features
are qualitatively similar to the work carried out by Dagtekin
et al. [155] irrespective of Gr. Note that, the isotherms show
slightly greater distortion, depicting the strong and dominant con-
vection at the high Gr (Fig. 21(ii)(a–d)). However, the strength of
the convection decreases with the cavity aspect ratio (A ¼ h=w)
and thus, the conduction dominant heat transfer occurs for A ¼ 2
(h ¼ 0:5 and w ¼ 0:25) and 3 (h ¼ 0:75 and w ¼ 0:25) (Fig. 21(ii)
(c and d)) in contrast to A ¼ 0:66 (h ¼ 0:5 and w ¼ 0:75) and 1:5
(h ¼ 0:75 and w ¼ 0:5) (Fig. 21(ii)(a and b)). It is also interesting
to observe as that distance between the hot wall and left cold wall
increases, the heat transfer rate increases. Further, it was also
observed that the heat transfer rate increases by almost 21% and
17% for Gr ¼ 103 and Gr ¼ 105 , respectively as the mean diameter
of nanoparticles decreases from 200 nm to 5 nm. On the other
hand, the heat transfer rate was found to increase by 17% and
13% for Gr ¼ 103 and Gr ¼ 105 , respectively as the mean nanopar-
ticle volume fraction increases from 0:01 to 0:05.
Cho et al. [170] performed a numerical investigation based on
natural convection heat transfer characteristics within a compli-
cated cavity filled with nanofluid (Al2O3-water). The left wavy wall
was maintained at higher temperature compared to the right wavy
wall and the horizontal walls were maintained adiabatic. The gov-
erning equations (Eqs. (24a)–(24d)) are formulated using the
Boussinesq approximation and the complex-wavy-surface is mod-
eled as the superimposition of two sinusoidal functions. The effect
of the various parameters such as Rayleigh number
(Ra ¼ 100
106 ), amplitude of wavy surface (a ¼ 0 to 0:75), wave-
length of wavy surface (k ¼ 1
8) and volume fraction of nanopar-
46 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
ticles (0 6 / 6 0:1) were analyzed in detail. The results were illus-
trated in terms of streamlines, isotherms and Nusselt number dis-
tribution within the cavity. Due to the uniform heating of the left
wall, a clockwise slanted fluid circulation cell is found to encom-
pass the entire convex enclosure, irrespective of Ra. It is observed
that the circulation structure expands and becomes more complex
at high Rayleigh number (Ra). The significant twisting of the iso-
therms are also observed signifying the dominance of convection.
In addition, it is seen that the isotherms are concentrated near
the crest region of the hot wavy-wall and the trough region of
the cold wavy-wall. Consequently, the large temperature gradients
are formed in the crest and trough regions of the hot and cold wavy
walls, respectively. It is interesting to observe that the mean Nus-
selt number increases with the wave amplitude (a) at the low val-
ues of Rayleigh number. However, at the higher values of the
Rayleigh number (Ra P 104 ), the mean Nusselt number decreases
with the wave amplitude. It is also observed that the mean Nusselt
number increases as the wavelength is increased from k ¼ 1 to 4
irrespective of the Rayleigh number. However, a decreasing trend
in the mean Nusselt number is observed as the wavelength of
the wavy surface (k) increases from 4 to 8. Further, it is also found
that the heat transfer rate increases to a great extent with the vol-
ume fraction of the nanoparticles.
Very few studies have been reported till date on the entropy
generation studies within a nanofluid filled complex enclosures.
Esmaeilpoura and Abdollahzadeh [86] investigated the effects of
the Grashof number and volume fraction of Cu–water nanofluid
on natural convection heat transfer and fluid flow within a two-
dimensional differentially heated (hot left wall and right cold wall
along with horizontal adiabatic walls) wavy enclosure. The finite-
volume method with non orthogonal body fitted collocated grid
arrangement is used to solve the governing differential equations
(Eqs. (24a)–(24d)). The computations were performed for various
Grashof numbers (Gr ¼ 104 to 106 ), nanoparticles volume fraction
(0% to 10%) and surface waviness (0
0:4) for different patterns
of the wavy enclosure. Four different patterns based on the projec-
tion of the side walls (case 1: rectangular, case 2: inward left -
inward right walls, case 3: inward left - outward right walls, case
4: outward left and outward right walls) were considered for the
study [86]. In the absence of the nanoparticles, the streamlines
depict that an unicellular flow circulation cell exists for the cases
1 and 3, whereas multi-cellular fluid circulation cells were observed
for the cases 2 and 4 for Gr ¼ 104 . The increase in Grashof number
results in the vortex for the cases 1 and 3 to grow and break-up into
smaller vortices. On the other hand, the multiple vortices are
observed for the cases 2 and 4 merge and form a single vortex.
The isotherm contours display large zones of stratified temperature
along the central core region in all the enclosures for all Gr. How-
ever, the comparison of the patterns for the cases 2 and 3 at the
middle of the cavity shows that the thickness of thermal boundary
layer for the case 3 pattern is more than the case 2 pattern. It was
found that the entropy generation increases with the Grashof num-
ber and that also decreases with the increasing surface waviness.
Note that, the actives zones of the entropy generation were
observed along the walls of the enclosure at the higher Gr. It was
also observed that the average entropy generation is lower in the
case of nanofluids compared to the pure fluid. It was also inferred
from the studies that the average Nusselt number increases with
the Grashof number and that decreases with surface waviness, irre-
spective of the volume fractions. It was finally concluded that
among all wavy enclosures filled with nanofluids, the case 4 pattern
exhibit maximum value of average Nusselt number while the case 2
pattern has the minimum value of the average entropy generation.
Saidi and Karimi [171] carried out the numerical studies on nat-
ural convection cooling in an L-shape enclosure filled with copper–
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Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
water nanofluid. The bottom wall and the left vertical wall were
maintained isothermally hot whereas the opposite walls were
maintained isothermally cold. Note that, the walls connecting the
hot and cold walls were maintained adiabatic. The modified gov-
erning equations (Eqs. (27a)–(27d)) were solved numerically using
the finite volume approach. The effects of the Rayleigh number
(103 6 Ra 6 106 ), aspect ratio of the L-shaped enclosure (A ¼ 0:2
and 0:4) and the volume fraction of the Cu nanoparticles
(0 6 / 6 0:1) on the heat transfer coefficient, temperature and
flow fields were illustrated in details. Similar to the previous works
[167,170], it was observed that the multiple fluid circulation cells
intensify with Ra. In addition, the isotherms were found to be lar-
gely distorted due to the intense convection especially at Ra ¼ 106 .
For the higher aspect ratio (A), intense fluid circulation cells were
observed to encompass the entire enclosure whereas the flow cir-
culation cells were found to be prevalent only near the vertical
zone of the L-shaped enclosure for the low A. As a result, the heat
transfer coefficients were found to be significantly higher for the
higher A. The flow and temperature distributions were found to
be almost qualitatively similar for all / irrespective of A. However,
the intensity of the streamfunction was found to increase with /
and hence the heat transfer coefficient was found to be higher
for the high values of /.
In another work, Cho et al. [172] numerically investigated nat-
ural convection heat transfer performance and entropy generation
of Al2O3-water nanofluid in an inclined wavy-wall cavity. The
shape of the wavy-wall cavity, the boundary conditions and the
governing equations (Eqs. (24a)–(24d)) were similar to that con-
sidered in the previous work [170]. The streamlines, isotherms
and entropy maps were achieved for two different Ra (102 and
106 ) and various inclination angles (0 6 u 6 315 ). At Ra ¼ 102 ,
the buoyancy effect is weak as indicated by the weak fluid circula-
tion cells and hence, the isotherms follow the geometry of the
enclosure, irrespective of u. As u increases, the fluid circulation
cell forms multiple vortices which eventually separates into sec-
ondary fluid circulation cells near the upper and lower halves of
the enclosure, especially for u ¼ 90 and 270 . Note that, the lower
thermal mixing is indicated by the clustered isotherms near the
central core of the enclosure at Ra ¼ 102 , irrespective of u. High
entropy generation occurs near the lower-left crest region and
upper-right trough region of the cavity at Ra ¼ 102 . As Ra increases
to 106 , the buoyancy effect within the cavity becomes stronger, and
hence, the heat transfer is dominated by convection. As a result,
more complex circulation structures are induced and the isotherms
are more twisted. It is seen that the isotherms are closely packed
near the lower left crest region and upper-right trough region of
the cavity. Consequently, the greater local entropy generation
occurs over these extended regions of the cavity. At Ra ¼ 106 , fluid
circulation cell with multiple vortices are observed in the vertical
direction for u ¼ 45 and 90 whereas, fluid circulation cells
formed multiple vortices horizontally for u P 135 . Due to the
dominance of conduction at Ra ¼ 102 , the mean Nusselt number
has a low and approximately constant value for all inclination
angles. However, at the high Ra, the convection mechanism domi-
nates the heat transfer performance and the buoyancy effect
depends on the orientation of the cavity. As a result, the mean Nus-
selt number varies steeply with the increase in the inclination
angle.
7. Conclusion
Current review is a comprehensive outlook on the research pro-
gress made on natural convection in various non-square enclosures
(triangular, trapezoidal, rhombic or parallelogrammic and compli-
 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
cated enclosures). In the present era, the enclosures with non-
square shapes have drawn wide attention due to its extensive
applications in various food processing and material processing
industries. The enclosures with the straight walls are much easier
to model and the hydrodynamic and thermal flow patterns are less
complex compared to the enclosure with the complex structure
such as the inclined, curved and wavy surfaces. Subsequently, a
number of works on the non-square enclosures are found. The fluid
flow, temperature distribution and heat flow within the enclosures
are comprehensively illustrated using the streamlines, isotherms
and heatlines, respectively. As discussed by earlier workers, the
heatline approach was found to be the most effective tool to visu-
alize the convective heat transfer in order to decide the various
geometric and thermal parameters to achieve efficient heat trans-
fer rates. In addition, many studies on the entropy generation
within the enclosures have also been listed in order to achieve
an energy efficient approach for enhanced thermal processing of
the materials. Based on natural convection in various enclosures,
the following observations are listed below:
7.1. Triangular enclosures
 Conduction dominant heat transfer occurs at the low Pr and Ra
based on the parallel isotherms and less intense flow. On the
other hand, the stronger influence of convection is observed at
the high Ra based on the multiple circulations of streamlines
or heatlines and distorted isotherms. Note that, the aspect ratio
[4,42,88,90,91,97] and base angle [74,75,87,89,91,97] of the var-
ious triangular enclosures play the pivotal role in the fluid flow
distributions within the enclosures. Natural convection simula-
tion results with the discrete heating [74] in the triangular
enclosure demonstrate that the location of the heaters along
the central regime of the bottom wall results in the minimum
entropy generation due to the fluid friction along the side
walls.
 Darcy number (permeability) plays a significant role in the fluid
flow, heat transfer and entropy generation within the porous
triangular enclosures during natural convection. The results
have been illustrated in details for various models such as Darcy
model, Darcy–Brinkman model and Darcy–Brinkman–Forchhei
mer model. Note that, the Darcy number and Rayleigh number
have been incorporated into a Darcy–Rayleigh number
(RaD ¼ Ra  Da) and the effect of RaD on the flow field in the tri-
angular enclosures has been studied in details
[48,83,99,100,102–104]. At the small Darcy–Rayleigh number
(RaD ), the magnitudes of streamfunction are small and the heat-
lines [104–107] are orthogonal to the isotherms, indicating con-
duction dominant heat transfer. On the other hand, at the high
RaD , convection is initiated, the isotherms are gradually dis-
torted and thermal mixing is observed in almost all the cases.
A number of earlier works are devoted on convection with the
explicit role of Rayleigh and Darcy numbers within the triangu-
lar enclosures [84,101,105–107]. Similar to the fluid media, the
base angles and aspect ratio of the triangular enclosures influ-
ence the streamline and heatline distribution within the porous
triangular enclosures. Further, heat transfer and fluid friction
irreversibilities within the triangular enclosures have been
quantified using the entropy generation by few researchers.
 The addition of nanoparticles in the base fluid plays the crucial
role in enhancing the heat transfer rate within the triangular
enclosures. As a result, the effect of various nanofluids such as
Copper–water [63] and Ethylene Glycol–Copper–water [64]
nanofluid within the triangular enclosures have been investi-
gated in details. In addition, the results have also been demon-
strated for the different values of the Rayleigh number, solid
volume fraction, heat source location, enclosure aspect ratio
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Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
47
and Brownian motion on the flow and temperature fields within
the various triangular enclosures are examined in details
[63,64,108]. For all values of the solid volume fraction, the
higher heat transfer rate with Ra occurs due to strengthening
of the buoyancy forces [63,64]. The location of the heat source
along the walls of the triangular enclosures significantly affects
the heat transfer rate at various Rayleigh numbers [64,108]. It
was also observed that the heat transfer rate within the nano-
fluid filled triangular enclosure continuously increases with
the solid volume fraction at all Rayleigh numbers when the
Brownian motion is neglected [63]. Overall, it was inferred that
the effective heat transfer rate within the nanofluid filled enclo-
sure was found to be higher compared to the regular fluid filled
enclosure.
7.2. Trapezoidal enclosures
 A number of earlier works [109–112] involve natural convec-
tion in trapezoidal cavities in conjunction with internal baffles
attached to the walls and internal baffles are shown to demon-
strate the significant effect on flow and heat transfer character-
istics. The effects of the Rayleigh number, Prandtl number,
aspect ratio, baffle height, and baffle location on the flow and
temperature fields were investigated in details for various
boundary conditions. The presence of baffles was found to lar-
gely affect the flow and temperature distribution within the
trapezoidal enclosures [109,110]. In addition, the inclination
angles of the side walls of the trapezoidal enclosure with the
vertical axis also play a significant role in the fluid and heat flow
distributions inside the enclosures [69,112–116]. In most of the
cases, it is concluded that the trapezoidal enclosure with higher
inclination angle is the optimal shape for the thermal process-
ing irrespective of Prandtl number (Pr ¼ 0:015
1000).
 A few studies on natural convection in porous trapezoidal
enclosures have also been presented. Studies have been carried
out for various values of flow parameters such as modified Ray-
leigh (RaD ) numbers [32,117–119] and various geometric
parameters (inclination angles and aspect ratio) with Darcian
and non-Darcian assumptions on the porous model within the
trapezoidal enclosures. It was observed that partial cooling
along the side walls of the porous trapezoidal enclosure has
the significant effect on the flow field within the porous trape-
zoidal enclosures [32]. Also, it was inferred that the trapezoidal
enclosure with the higher inclination angles corresponds to the
highest heat transfer rate along the hotter wall, irrespective of
RaD and imposed thermal boundary conditions [120–122]. The
thermal mixing within the porous trapezoidal enclosures was
clearly illustrated by the dense heatline distributions and
intense heat circulation cells [32,120–122]. Further, the entropy
generation studies within the porous trapezoidal enclosures
illustrate that the high heat transfer rate, optimal thermal mix-
ing and minimum entropy generation rate are achievable only
at the lower RaD .
 The problem of natural convection heat transfer in a trapezoidal
enclosure filled with nanofluids has been studied numerically
by various researchers. The structure of the fluid flow and heat
transfer rate within the nanofluid filled trapezoidal enclosure
were found to depend upon various inclination angles, solid vol-
ume fractions and Rayleigh numbers [124–126]. It was inferred
from earlier studies [124,125] that nanoparticles with the high
volume fraction are most effective in enhancing performance of
the heat transfer rate. In addition, the structure of the fluid flow
and temperature fields within the nanofluid filled trapezoidal
enclosure is found to vary with the aspect ratio [126] and
Prandtl number [124–126].
48 D. Das et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer xxx (2016) xxx–xxx
7.3. Rhombic/parallelogrammic enclosures
 Extensive studies have been reviewed based on the fluid media
filled rhombic and parallelogrammic shaped enclosures. The
effect of the thermal aspect ratio, inclination angles of the
enclosure, Rayleigh number, Prandtl number and Fourier num-
ber on the flow field within the rhombic/parallelogrammic
enclosure has been investigated in details [127,128,130–135].
Asymmetric flow circulation cells were observed in most of
the studies due to the asymmetric geometric configuration of
the rhombic/parallelogrammic enclosure. Similar to the trian-
gular and trapezoidal enclosures, the heatlines concept was
implemented for the visualization of the heat flow [134,135].
It was inferred that rhombic cavities with the lower inclination
angles are found to be useful in the liquid metal processing
applications (Pr ¼ 0:015) whereas cavities with the higher incli-
nation angle are efficient in the solar heating applications and
thermal processing of chemical solutions and oils (Pr ¼ 1000).
Further, the entropy generation studies within fluid filled rhom-
bic/parallelogrammic enclosure conclude that the total entropy
generation is found to be low for the lower inclination angles
[135].
 A number of studies on porous rhombic/parallelogrammic
enclosures have been reviewed in details [138–142]. Analysis
of heatlines and entropy generation during natural convection
in porous rhombic/parallelogrammic cavities has been carried
out based on the controlling parameters such as inclination
angle [138,140–142], Darcy number [139–142], Rayleigh num-
ber [139–142], modified Rayleigh number [138], enclosure
gap [139], porosity [139], etc. It was observed that the flow
strength and the total heat transfer rate increases with Pr irre-
spective of Darcy and Rayleigh numbers. Overall, the thermal
efficiency within the porous rhombic cavity of lesser inclination
angles is concluded to be optimum based on the minimum
entropy generation values and greater heat transfer rates
[141,142].
7.4. Complex enclosures
 A number of works based on natural convection heat transfer
within fluid filled complex geometry have been reviewed in
details [143–155]. The test studies were carried out for various
inclination angles, amplitude-wavelength ratios, undulations
on the side walls, irreversibility distribution ratios, aspect ratio,
Rayleigh numbers and Prandtl numbers. It was concluded that
the presence of the undulation in the walls strongly affects both
the local heat transfer rate and flow field as well as thermal field
[143–151]. In addition, the flow and thermal characteristics
within the fluid filled complex enclosure is found to be highly
dependent on amplitude-wavelength ratios for the lesser incli-
nation angles, especially for high Rayleigh numbers [148,151].
The heat transfer rate was found to be higher for the complex
enclosures with greater amplitude-wavelength ratio. It was also
found that for a particular aspect ratio, the entropy generation
is less and heat transfer rate is invariant and independent of
Rayleigh number at the conduction regime. On the other hand,
the entropy generation and heat transfer rate show an increas-
ing trend with Rayleigh number [153–155].
 Natural convection heat transfer in a complex cavity filled with
a porous-saturated medium was studied numerically by various
authors [56,156–162]. The effect of porosity was studied in
details by varying the Darcy–Rayleigh number over a large
range. In all the studies, the heat transfer rate was found to be
higher for the higher values of Darcy–Rayleigh number as the
overall hydraulic resistance within the porous media was con-
Please cite this article in press as: D. Das et al., Studies on natural convection within enclosures of various (non-square) shapes – A review, Int. J. Heat Mass
Transfer (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.08.034
siderably lesser for the high Darcy–Rayleigh number. In addi-
tion, the flow circulations within the cavities were also found
to be intense at the high Darcy–Rayleigh number. The results
also illustrated that the increase in the amplitude of the wavy
surface and the number of undulations largely enhanced the
effective heat transfer rate inside the complex cavity [56,156–
159]. In addition, the fluid flow characteristics within the enclo-
sure also significantly changes and multiple fluid circulations
occur for high amplitude-wavelength ratio and higher number
of undulations.
 A number of works on natural convection heat transfer of nano-
fluid in various complicated geometries were also presented
[86,165–170]. The effect of nanofluids on natural convection is
investigated as a function of geometrical and physical parame-
ters and particle fractions such as aspect ratio, Rayleigh number,
nanoparticle fraction, effective thermal conductivity ratios, etc.
The results illustrate that the heat transfer rate increases with
the volume fraction of nanoparticles irrespective of Rayleigh
number (Ra). In addition, it is also shown that the heat transfer
performance can be optimized via changing the amplitude-
wave ratio of the enclosure [165–169]. Overall, the results
inferred from the various studies provide a useful insight into
potential strategies for enhancing the convection heat transfer
performance within complicated cavities.
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