International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 33 (2006) 936 942 www.elsevier.

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Laminar free convection inside an inclined L-shaped enclosure

Syeda Humaira Tasnim , Shohel Mahmud 1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L3G1 Available online 3 July 2006

Abstract We have numerically reported the buoyancy induced flow and heat transfer characteristics inside an inclined L-shaped enclosure. A control volume based Finite-Volume method is applied to discretize the governing equations with collocated variable arrangement. SIMPLE algorithm is used and the system of equations is solved by Stone's SIP solver with full multigrid acceleration. Results are presented in the form of the average Nusselt number for a range of inclination angle, = 0360; Rayleigh number, Ra= 1105; and aspect ratio, A = 0.10.5. 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Cavity; Finite volume; Natural convection; Nusselt number; Orientation

1. Introduction Natural convection heat transfer inside irregular and complex shaped enclosures has a wide variety of technological applications involving double-wall thermal insulation, underground cable systems, solar-collectors, electric machinery, cooling system of micro-electronic devices, natural circulation in the atmosphere, the molten core of the Earth, etc. The understanding of the flow behavior within an irregular enclosure is recently regarded as one of the fundamental concerns to the researchers of fluid dynamics and hence, the problems have been pursued extensively. As a matter of fact, a number of studies dealing with different kinds of enclosures have been performed and the solutions for both flow and thermal fields have been presented. For example, arc-shaped enclosure [1], wavy enclosure [2], enclosure with irregular walls [3], eccentric elliptical enclosure [4], etc. L-shaped enclosures have been receiving a growing interest recently due to its potential engineering applications in electronic packages, electrical equipment, building corners, etc. The works of Angirasa and Mahajan [5], Angirasa et al. [6], and Chinnakotla et al. [7] are devoted to study the flow and thermal fields' behavior near an L-shaped corner at different boundary conditions. Heat transfer inside L-shaped enclosures governed by several factors. Interwall spacing, enclosure height, sharpness of the corners, multicellular flow pattern at high Rayleigh numbers are some of the common influential factors. Mahmud [8] reported buoyancy induced flow pattern and heat transfer characteristics inside an L-shaped enclosure for three different aspect ratios. Existence of multicellular flow is also reported for lower aspect ratio which affects both local and global heat transfer rates. A V-shaped enclosure is nothing but the 45 counterclockwise position of an L-shaped enclosure. Ruiz and Sparrow [9] tested heat transfer and flow problems for both L-shaped and V-shaped corners. The

Communicated by W.J. Minkowycz. Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 519 888 4567x6221. E-mail addresses: shtasnim@uwaterloo.ca (S.H. Tasnim), smahmud@uwaterloo.ca (S. Mahmud). 1 Tel.: +1 519 888 4567x3885.

0735-1933/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2006.05.008

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Nomenclature A CP h k L n Nuav NuL Pr Ra S TC TH v V W Aspect ratio, = W/L Specific heat at constant pressure, Jkg 1K 1 Convective heat transfer coefficient, Wm 2K 1 Thermal conductivity of the fluid, Wm 1K 1 Length of walls, m Unit normal vector Average Nusselt number (see Eq. (6)) Local Nusselt number (see Eq. (6)) Prandtl number, =CP / k Rayleigh number, = 2g(TH TC)L3 / k Surface, m2 Cold wall temperature, C Hot wall temperature, C Velocity vector, ms 1 Volume, m3 Gap between two walls, m

Greek symbol Thermal expansion coefficient, K 1 Angle of orientation Viscosity of the fluid, Nsm 2 Density of the fluid, kgm 3

study of Nithiarasu et al. [10] is closely related to an inverted (about the vertical axis) -shaped enclosure. The reported results of Hasan and Baig [11] for an odd-shaped enclosure is geometrically close to an inverted U-shaped enclosure. In the present investigation, we include the effect of inclination to our previous work [8]. Inclination is defined by counterclockwise angular rotation () of the cavity. For some special values of , cavity becomes L-shaped ( = 0), Vshaped ( = 45), inverted L-shaped ( = 90), angle shaped ( = 135 and = 315), -shaped ( = 225), etc. 2. Problem formulation Consider a Newtonian fluid is circulating inside an inclined L-shaped enclosure as shown in Fig. 1. The width and the height of the cavity are equal and denoted by L. W represents the thickness of the cavity. W/L is the aspect ratio (A) of the cavity. Modeling the flow as Boussinesq-incompressible to take into account the coupling between the energy and momentum equations, we regard that the density is constant everywhere except in the buoyancy term of momentum equations (Eqs. (2) and (3)). Correspondingly, the equations governing the steady state conservation of mass, momentum, and energy in the cavity of Fig. 1 are Z qv:ndS 0 1 S Z Z Z Z qui v: ndS lgradui :ndS pii :ndS qgi dV ; 2 S S S V Z Z Z Z quj v: ndS lgraduj :ndS pij :ndS qgj dV ; 3
S S S V

and

Z qT v:ndS
S

Z
S

l gradT :ndS: Pr

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Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the problem under consideration.

In cases considered here, the only body force is the buoyancy force, which is implemented by applying the Boussinesq approximation q q0 gbT T0 ; 5

where gi is the i th component of the gravity acceleration vector, T0 is the reference temperature and 0 is the density at T0. Boundary conditions are given in Fig. 1. The solution procedure of Eqs. (1)(4) is available in Ferziger and Peri [12] and is not repeated here.
3. Results and discussions The structure of grid is described in Mahmud [8] with a description of grid sensitivity test. A description of the code and its validation are available in Mahmud et al. [2] and are not repeated here.

Fig. 2. Average Nusselt number as a function of Rayleigh number at different .

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Fig. 3. Average Nusselt number as a function of for different Ra.

Heat transfer is calculated in terms of the average Nusselt number (Nuav) which is obtained by integrating the local Nusselt number (NuL) along the hot wall of the cavity. The calculation procedure is shown in the following equation Nuav 1 abc Z NuL ds; where NuL
abc

k DT

T n

6
at hot walls

where s is the length along the hot wall and abc is the total length (or the arc length) of the hot wall (see Fig. 1). Only the average Nusselt number's variation as a function of different dependent variables (for example Ra, , and A) is presented in this paper. For a constant aspect ratio (A = 0.25), the average Nusselt number is presented as a function of the Rayleigh number (in Fig. 2) for five selected values of . One can easily identify two distinct zones in the Nuav Ra profiles. In zone 1, Nuav is constant (3.25) and independent of the Rayleigh number's variation. This zone can be termed as the conduction-dominated zone. The angle of orientation () has little or no effect on Nuav in this zone. For a large Rayleigh number, Nuav varies almost linearly (in semi-logarithmic plot) with Ra (zone 2) and its magnitude depends on . This zone can be termed as the convection-dominated zone. The functional relationship of Nuav with will be well understood from Fig. 3, where Nuav is plotted as a function of at different Ra. For Ra= 103 and 104, no variation of

Fig. 4. Average Nusselt number as a function of A for different .

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Fig. 5. Average Nusselt number as a function of A for different Ra and = 0.

Nuav is observed with . Ra= 103 and 104 are well inside the conduction-dominated regime. However, for Ra = 5 104 and 105, Nuav shows a variation which is entirely dependent. The Nuav profile at Ra= 5 104 is similar in shape with the profile at Ra= 105, but only variation is observed in the magnitude of Nuav. The maximum heat transfer occurs at = 45 for all Ra at the convection-dominated zone. It is interesting to note that the average heat transfer shows its minimum value at two distinct values of angle of orientation, i.e., = 157.5 and 292.5. The Nuav profiles in convection-dominated zone have two symmetrical parts: (a) the first part is about = 45 in the range of = 090, and (b) the second part is about = 225 in the range of = 90360. Aspect ratio (A) is a measure of the interwall spacing for the present problem and is expressed by W/L. For a range of A (=0.10.5), Nuav is presented as a function of in Fig. 4 for Ra= 104. Average heat transfer rate decreases with increasing interwall spacing. The influence of on Nuav for A 0.35 is insignificant. The magnitudes of Nuav are the same for all for A 0.35; only a small variation in the magnitudes are observed for A > 0.35. For two angular positions, = 0 and 45, Nuav is plotted (in Figs. 5 and 6) as a function of A for different Ra. For small interwall spacing (A < 0.15), Nuav is almost equal in magnitude for all Ra considered here. The influence of Ra on Nuav is insignificant for A < 0.15. For Ra = 103 and 104, the average heat transfer decreases with increasing interwall spacing. However, for Ra = 5 104 and 105 (inside the convection-dominated zone), the Nuav A profile shows a complicated pattern, specially, at = 0.

Fig. 6. Average Nusselt number as a function of A for different Ra and = 45.

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Fig. 7. Streamlines (solid lines) and isothermal lines (dashed lines) for Ra = 104, A = 0.5, and six selected angle of orientations. The maximum values of streamfunctions are (a) |max| = 3.264, (b) |max| = 2.424, (c) |max| = 3.280, (d) |max| = 2.381, (e) |max| = 1.017, (f) |max| = 2.387.

For a selected case (Ra = 104 and A = 0.5), Fig. 7(a) to 7(f) presents the flow and thermal fields patterns in terms of streamlines (solid lines) and isothermal lines (dashed lines) for six selected angle of orientations as mentioned in the figures. For each case, the strength of circulation is presented in the figure title in terms of maximum streamfunction (max). When = 0, a natural clockwise circulation exists inside the vertical portion of the cavity due to a temperature difference between the hot wall (ab) and the cold wall (a1b1). The counterclockwise Benard cell in the horizontal part of the cavity evolves due to the hot bottom wall (bc) and cold top wall (b1c1). For relatively high strength circulation in the vertical portion of the cavity a horizontal penetration of vertical circulation occurs in the horizontal part of the cavity. Two symmetric Benard cells appear when = 45 due to the hot bottom walls (abc) and top cold walls (a1b1c1). This is the most unstable position for fluid inside the cavity. In contrast, the cavity position = 225 is the most stable position for fluid due to the positions of the hot and cold walls. The flow and thermal fields for = 90 are simply the mirror images of the flow and thermal fields for = 0 and are not presented here. The counterclockwise circulation for = 135 nearly follows the cavity geometry near walls with egg shaped cores. When =180, no Benard cell appears inside the horizontal portion of the cavity due to the cold bottom wall and hot top wall which permits a complete horizontal penetration of circulatory fluid in the

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vertical portion of the cavity where a circulation exists due to the horizontal temperature difference. The flow and thermal fields are mirror images of the flow and thermal fields at = 180.

4. Conclusions Heat transfer characteristics inside an inclined L-shaped enclosure are investigated numerically. For a range of Rayleigh number, the effect of interwall spacing and angle of orientation is tested on heat transfer rate inside the cavity. For a particular range of Rayleigh number (conduction-dominated zone), heat transfer rate is equal and independent of Rayleigh number's distribution. Average heat transfer varies linearly in the convection-dominated zone, which is determined by another range of Rayleigh number. Influence of on the average heat transfer rate in the conductiondominated zone is insignificant. However, in the convection-dominated zone, the Nuav relationship is characterized by one angular location for maximum and two angular locations for minimum values of the average Nusselt number and two symmetrical parts of the profile: one with respect to = 90 and another with respect to = 225. Angle of orientation does not influence significantly the Nuav A relationship. But a significant influence of Ra is observed on the Nuav A relationship which shows a complicated behavior, especially in the convection-dominated zone. References
[1] C.L. Chen, C.H. Cheng, Buoyancy-induced flow and convective heat transfer inside an inclined arc-shaped enclosure, International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow 23 (2002) 823830. [2] S. Mahmud, P.K. Das, N. Hyder, A.K.M. Islam, Free convection in an enclosure with vertical wavy walls, International Journal of Thermal Sciences 41 (2002) 440446. [3] J.H. Lee, Y.R. Back, S.R. Lee, M. Faghri, Natural convection in enclosures with an irregular wall, in: J.A. Reizes (Ed.), Transport Phenomena in Heat and Mass Transfer, Elsevier, 1992, pp. 112123. [4] C.H. Cheng, C.C. Chao, Numerical prediction of the buoyancy driven flow in the annulus between horizontal eccentric elliptical cylinders, Numerical Heat Transfer (A) 30 (1996) 283303. [5] D. Angirasa, R.L. Mahajan, Natural convection from L-shaped corners with adiabatic and cold isothermal horizontal walls, Journal of Heat Transfer 115 (1993) 149157. [6] D. Angirasa, R.B. Chinnakotla, R.L. Mahajan, Buoyancy induced convection from isothermal L-shaped corners with symmetrically heated surfaces, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 37 (1994) 24392463. [7] R.B. Chinnakotla, D. Angirasa, R.L. Mahajan, Parametric study of buoyancy induced flow and heat transfer from L-shaped corners with asymmetrically heated surface, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 39 (1996) 851855. [8] S. Mahmud, Free convection inside an L-shaped enclosure, International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 29 (2002) 10051013. [9] R. Ruiz, E.M. Sparrow, Natural convection in V-shaped and L-shaped corners, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 30 (1987) 25392548. [10] P. Nithiarasu, T. Sundararajan, K.N. Seetharamu, Finite element analysis of transient convection in an odd-shaped enclosure, International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat and Fluid Flow 8 (1998) 199216. [11] N. Hasan, F.M. Baig, Evolution to aperiodic penetrative convection in odd shaped rectangular enclosures, International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat and Fluid Flow 12 (2002) 895915. [12] J. Ferziger, M. Peri, Computational Methods for Fluid Dynamics, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1996.