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5.2 Natural convection in a rectangular enclosure

Table 5.5 Input information for solving the natural convection problem in an enclosure

Flow and geometry characteristics Air properties

H = 0.016 m po =1.1614 kg m-3 @ To = 300 K
L = 0.128 m µ = 1.846 x 10-5 kg m-1 s-1
ΔT = 4 – 9 K k = 0.0262 W m-1 K-1
T = 300 K Pr = 0.707
cp = 1007 J kg-1 K-1
β = T-1 = 1/300 K-1
T1
H

q"=0 q"=0
s air s

T2 L
Figure 5.8. Four wall enclosure

- Thermal considerations

Natural or free convection differs from forced convection in the sense that fluid

motion is originated by the action of a body force on a fluid with density gradients,

instead of a forced source of motion. The Rayleigh number is a dimensionless parameter

that characterizes this type of heat transfer:

gβΔTH 3
Ra = (5.11)
υα

It has been experimentally proven that for a rectangular enclosure, as shown in

Fig. 5.8, buoyancy forces overcome resistance caused by viscous effects when Ra > Rac

≈ 1708. After that point, fluid motion makes heat transfer by convection greater than

conduction.
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Table 5.6 Boundary conditions for natural convection in an enclosure problem

Boundary Type Velocity boundary Thermal boundary

Top Wall u(x,H) = 0, v(x,H) = 0 T(x,H) = T1
Bottom Wall u(x,0) = 0, v(x,0) = 0 T(x,0) = T2
Left Wall u(0,y) = 0, v(0,y) = 0 ∂T
=0
∂x x =0
Right Wall u(L,y) = 0, v(L,y) = 0 ∂T
=0
∂x x =L

- Mesh, convergence and settings

A 160 x 80 non-uniform mesh was created with finer cells near all walls as larger

gradients are expected at the boundaries when fluid circulation is occurring. After setting

the aspect ration to H/L = 8, different Rayleigh numbers were obtained by varying the

temperature at top (cool) and bottom (hot) of the walls. For each case, the average

temperature was set to 300 K and air properties at this temperature were employed. A test

simulation at a supercritical Ra was done in order to define the convergence criteria to be

used, and it was observed that solutions did not change significantly for convergence

criteria 10-6 applied to all equations.

- Results

At a subcritical Rayleigh number air remained static and conduction dominates

heat transfer. In that case, isotherms were evenly distributed along lines parallel to the

horizontal boundaries because the vertical walls were insulated (Fig. 5.9a). The number

of iterations needed to meet the convergence criteria was relatively fewer than in

supercritical conditions. When the critical number was surpassed, isotherms tended to
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oscillate due to fluid motion, which was initially smoother as shown in Fig 5.9c, but

became very abrupt at high Rayleigh numbers as depicted in Fig. 5.9e. It has been

reported both experimentally and numerically that this fluid motion consists of regularly

spaced recirculating cells inside the domain, the number of which varies as a function of

the Rayleigh number and whose direction of rotation alternates from one cell to its

neighbor. Fig 5.9d shows 8 cells for Ra just after the critical value, whereas Fig. 5.9f

shows 10 cells when Ra = 13Rac. These contours should be interpreted by using the

following non-dimensional variables for temperature and stream function:

T − T1 ψ − ψ min
θ= ; ψ*=
T2 − T1 ψ max − ψ min

Nusselt – Rayleigh number curves are depicted in Fig. 5.10 for the current study,

as well as from previous research projects by Kim and Choi (1996), and experimental

results from Silverton (Chandrasekhar, 1991). On the subcritical range the Nusselt

number was equal to one, which confirms the occurrence of a purely-conductive heat

transfer through the domain. It is worth mentioning that simulating the onset of

convective results in a long computational time to meet convergence criterion at the

critical Rayleigh number. That is, the onset of natural convection due to weak buoyancy

force is computationally challenging. The computational time needed turns out to be

shorter at further values of Ra due to rigorous buoyancy force. It was observed that a

slight delay of the onset (Ra ≈ 1730) caused mainly by the selected convergence
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criterion; however the overall results are in excellent agreement with analytical and

numerical solutions.

a) b)

c) d)

e) f)

Figure 5.9. Isotherms (left) and streamlines (right) inside an enclosure. Δθ = 0.1 and Δψ* = 0.1
for all cases. a) and b) Ra = 0.22 Rac, c) and d) Ra = 1.1 Rac, e) and f) Ra = 13Rac. Units of x and
y axis are meters (m)
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2.0

1.8

1.6
Averaged-Nu

Present study
1.4
Kim and Choi

Silverton (Water)
1.2

1.0

0.8
1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
Ra
Figure 5.10. Nusselt number for a 4-walls enclosure (H/L = 8). Present and previous studies