This article was downloaded by: [Tufts University]

On: 14 November 2014, At: 07:24

Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,
37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Heat Transfer Engineering

Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uhte20

Laminar Mixed-Convection Heat Transfer in a Lid-

Driven Cavity with Modified Heated Wall
a b
Kerim Yapici & Salih Obut
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey
b
TUBITAK Marmara Research Center, Energy Institute, Kocaeli, Turkey
Accepted author version posted online: 23 Apr 2014.Published online: 25 Sep 2014.

To cite this article: Kerim Yapici & Salih Obut (2015) Laminar Mixed-Convection Heat Transfer in a Lid-Driven Cavity with
Modified Heated Wall, Heat Transfer Engineering, 36:3, 303-314, DOI: 10.1080/01457632.2014.916160

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01457632.2014.916160

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained
in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no
representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the
Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and
are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and
should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for
any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever
or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of
the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic
reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any
form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://
www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
 Heat Transfer Engineering, 36(3):303–314, 2015
Copyright 
C Taylor and Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0145-7632 print / 1521-0537 online
DOI: 10.1080/01457632.2014.916160

Laminar Mixed-Convection Heat

Transfer in a Lid-Driven Cavity
with Modified Heated Wall

KERIM YAPICI1 and SALIH OBUT2

1
Department of Chemical Engineering, Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey
2
TUBITAK Marmara Research Center, Energy Institute, Kocaeli, Turkey
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 07:24 14 November 2014

In this numerical study, steady laminar mixed-convection heat transfer in a two-dimensional square lid-driven cavity with a
modified heated wall is investigated over a range of Richardson numbers, including 0.01, 1, and 10. The heated bottom wall
of the cavity is characterized by rectangular, triangular, and sinusoidal wave shapes. The cooled top wall of the cavity is
sliding with constant velocity, while the vertical walls are kept stationary and adiabatic. The governing equations are solved
using a finite-volume technique. The results are presented in the form of streamlines, isotherms, and Nusselt number plots.
The effects of the number of undulations and the amplitude on the flow field and heat transfer are also investigated. The
predicted results demonstrate that the heat transfer enhancement is generally observed with the modification of the heated
wall, while the improvement is found to be more profound for the case of rectangular wave and at low Richardson number.

INTRODUCTION
The lid-driven cavity problem is recognized as the most
popular benchmark problem in computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) literature. This is not due only to the presence of analyt-
ical and numerical benchmark results, but also to the presence
of engineering applications where both momentum and energy
transport occur in closed enclosures. Among the various cavity
geometries, rectangular and square lid-driven cavity geometry
with various boundary conditions have received considerable at-
tention in the literature due to variable applications of practical
interest. These have been highlighted elsewhere [1, 2], including
thermal design of buildings, cooling of electronic devices, fur-
nace and nuclear reactors, lubrication and drying technologies,
and chemical and food processing. As far as the shape of the en-
closure is concerned, studies associated with mixed-convection
heat transfer in a lid-driven cavity can be classified into two
categories: regular and irregular walls.
To date, dozens of studies have been performed to in-
vestigate and understand the transport mechanism of laminar
mixed-convection heat transfer in a lid-driven cavity, with or
Address correspondence to Dr. Kerim Yapici, Department of Chem-
ical Engineering, Cumhuriyet University, 58140 Sivas, Turkey. E-mail:
kyapici@cumhuriyet.edu.tr
without inserting an obstacle into the cavity [1, 3–9]. How-
ever, the studies linked with the cavities having irregular walls,
meaning that one or more walls of the enclosure are charac-
terized with a wave function, are scarce [10–13]. Many prac-
tical applications for heat transfer from the irregular surfaces
are available, however, such as flat-plate solar collectors, re-
frigeration systems, automobile radiators, and microelectronic
devices [10, 13].
Ouertatani et al. [6] conducted three-dimensional numeri-
cal simulations of the laminar mixed-convection in a double
lid-driven cavity heated from the top moving lid and cooled
from the bottom moving lid. They concluded that the predicted
average Nusselt number was found to be higher with double
moving lids than that of one moving lid. Sivasankaran et al. [7]
investigated the mixed-convection heat transfer in a lid-driven
cavity where both side walls were subjected to sinusoidal tem-
perature distribution. They observed that the heat transfer rate
was higher when both side walls were subjected to nonuniform
heating compared to when only the one wall was subjected to
nonuniform heating.
Al-Amiri et al. [10] performed a numerical study of mixed-
convection heat transfer in a lid-driven cavity that was heated
from the wavy bottom surface. In their study, the influence of
the wavy surface on the rate of heat transfer was investigated for
various Richardson numbers (Ri), the number of wavy surface
undulations, and the wavy surface amplitude. They pointed out

303
 304 K. YAPICI AND S. OBUT

that the heated wavy bottom surface affects the heat and flow
characteristics inside the cavity. Their numerical results showed
that the average Nusselt number predicted for wavy bottom
surface was found to be higher than that of the flat surface. The
same authors [13] also investigated the effect of the flexible
bottom wall on the fluid flow and heat transfer numerically,
by utilizing a fluid–structure interaction model. Their results
demonstrated that the elasticity of the bottom wall significantly
impacts on the bottom wall shape and also the rate of heat
transfer. The wavy bottom surface was also used by Nasrin and
Parvin [12] to analyze mixed-convection heat transfer in the
presence of a magnetic field. They concluded that the predicted
average Nusselt number increases with increasing undulation
and Reynolds number and decreases with increasing Hartmann
number.
The brief literature survey provided for mixed-convection
heat transfer in a lid-driven cavity revealed that the study on
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 07:24 14 November 2014

enclosures having irregular walls has received little attention.

In contrast, few experimental [14] and numerical studies [15]
have been accomplished using intentionally roughened ducts,
channels, or circular tubes to enhance heat transfer rates. Re-
cently, Manca et al. [15] performed a numerical study to ana-
lyze heat transfer and fluid flow in the two-dimensional chan-
nel with ribs under a turbulent flow regime. In their study, the Figure 1 Schematic representation of the considered cases: (a) regular shape of
channel with five differently shaped ribs was considered, using square lid-driven cavity; (b) sinusoidal wavy bottom shape surface; (c) triangular
wavy bottom shape surface; and (d) rectangular wavy bottom shape surface.
different rib geometrical ratios. They found that the relative
average Nusselt number increases with increasing Reynolds
number and relative roughness height. In addition, the high-
est thermal activity was observed with the use of triangular
boundary conditions are applied to all physical models shown in
ribs.
Figure 1.
In the light of cited numerical studies performed for mixed-
The second case (Case II) corresponds to a cavity where
convection heat transfer, the lid-driven cavity with irregular wall
the bottom wall is modified with a sinusoidal wave shape
shapes, as shown in Figure 1, has not been reported so far. Hence,
(Figure 1b). This problem has been studied previously by Al-
the objective of this study is to investigate the mixed-convection
Amiri et al. [10] in detail to explore the effect of the sinusoidal
heat transfer and flow hydrodynamics in the differentially heated
wavy surface on the heat transfer rate. The sinusoidal wavy
square lid-driven cavity. The heated bottom wall will be char-
shape profile is described by Eq. (1) [10].
acterized by sinusoidal, triangular and rectangular wave shapes.
The last two cases (Case III and Case IV), shown in Figures
The heat transfer enhancement potential of each shape is eval-
1c and 1d, correspond to the modification of the bottom wall
uated for the fixed Reynolds number (Re = 100) and various
by triangular and rectangular wave shapes, respectively. Their
Richardson numbers (0.01 ≤ Ri ≤ 10).
corresponding surface profiles are described by Eqs. (2) and (3),
respectively. This is the first time that the problem of mixed-
convection flow in a lid-driven cavity, as described for the last
two cases, has been handled in the literature, to the best of the
authors’ knowledge.
MODEL GEOMETRY AND PROBLEM DEFINITION

The schematic representation of the physical models and the Y (X ) = A [1 − cos (2πn X )] (1)
boundary conditions are shown in Figure 1. The first physical  
 (X mod 2λ)  L
model (Case I) in Figure 1a is the well-known regular two- 
Y (X ) = 2A 1 −  − 1 with λ = (2)
dimensional square lid-driven cavity. The top wall of the en- λ 2n
closure is sliding with a constant velocity in the positive x-
direction, while the remaining walls are kept stationary. The Y (X ) = A [1 − sign (cos (2πn X ))] (3)
cooled top and heated bottom horizontal walls are kept at con-
stant but at different uniform temperatures. The vertical walls, Here, A and n are the amplitude and the number of undula-
however, are assumed to be well insulated. The aforementioned tions of the shape on the bottom wall, respectively.
heat transfer engineering vol. 36 no. 3 2015
 K. YAPICI AND S. OBUT 305

MODEL EQUATIONS AND NUMERICAL Grashof, and Richardson numbers, respectively:

METHODOLOGY
ρu lid L C pμ gβ (Thot − Tcold ) H 3
Re = Pr = Gr =
The flow of fluid in the cavity is considered to be two- μ k ν2
dimensional, laminar, and steady. The physical properties of
Gr
the fluid are assumed to be constant except for the buoyancy Ri = (13)
term in the momentum equation, which is treated according to Re2
Boussinesq approximation. The viscous dissipation term in the The boundary conditions shown in Figure 1 are also converted
momentum equations and radiation heat transfer are also ne- into their nondimensional form as in the following:
glected. Under the assumptions listed earlier, the dimensional
At the top wall U = 1, V = 0 and θ = 0 (14)
forms of the continuity, momentum, and energy equations can
be written as follows:
∂θ
∂u ∂v At the vertical walls U = 0, V = 0 and =0 (15)
+ =0 (4) ∂x
∂x ∂y
At the bottom wall U = 0, V = 0 and θ = 1 (16)
 2 
∂u ∂u 1 ∂p ∂ u ∂ 2u
+v =− +ν + The rate of heat transfer is characterized by the Nusselt (Nu),
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 07:24 14 November 2014

u (5)
∂x ∂y ρ ∂x ∂x2 ∂ y2 number and the local Nusselt number (NuL ) is calculated at the
 2  walls by
∂v ∂v 1 ∂p ∂ v ∂ 2v
u +v =− +ν + 2 ∂θ
∂x ∂y ρ ∂y ∂x2 ∂y NuL = − (17)
∂n
+ gρβ (T − Tcold ) (6) where n is the normal direction on the surface (a negative sign
refers to the heat transfer from the hot wall to the fluid). In
 
∂T ∂T k ∂2T ∂2T addition, the average Nu number (Nuavg ) is calculated by the
u +v = + (7) integration of the local Nu number through the wall and it is
∂x ∂y ρC p ∂x2 ∂ y2
given by
where p is the pressure and u and v are the velocity x- and y- 
1
components, respectively. The parameters ρ, ν, β, k, and Cp are N u avg = NuLd S (18)
the density, kinematic viscosity, thermal expansion coefficient, Lb
thermal conductivity, and heat capacity, respectively. Equations where S is the curve length along the bottom wall of the cavity
(4)–(7) are converted into their dimensionless form by using the and Lb is the total length of the bottom wall:
following dimensionless variables: 
Lb = d S (19)
x y u T − Tcold v
X = Y = U= θ= V =
L H u lid Thot − Tcold u lid

p
P= (8) NUMERICAL METHODOLOGY AND GRID
ρu lid
2
DEPENDENCY
In dimensionless form, the governing equations become
The governing equations in Eqs. (4)–(7) are discretized us-
∂U ∂V ing a finite-volume approach [16]. Diffusion terms are cen-
+ =0 (9)
∂X ∂Y tral differenced, while convective terms in the momentum and
  energy equations are approximated by a second-order upwind
∂U ∂U ∂P 1 ∂ 2U ∂ 2U scheme. The calculations are done using the FLUENT commer-
U +V =− + + (10)
∂X ∂Y ∂X Re ∂ X2 ∂Y 2 cial solver. The solution process is reiterated until the normal-
  ized residual of each governing equation reduces by five orders
∂V ∂V ∂P 1 ∂2V ∂2V of magnitude. In our calculations, air is chosen as the work-
U +V =− + + + Riθ (11)
∂X ∂Y ∂Y Re ∂ X2 ∂Y 2 ing fluid, and its physical properties are tabulated in Table 1.
Moreover, cavity dimensions and lid velocities corresponding
  with each studied Ri number (0.01, 1, and 10) are also listed in
∂θ ∂θ 1 ∂ 2θ ∂ 2θ
U +V = + (12) Table 2.
∂X ∂Y Re Pr ∂X 2 ∂Y 2
The mesh refinement is an important subject in the numeri-
The nondimensional numbers that appear in the equa- cal studies in order to get accurate results and capture realistic
tions juist shown—Re, Pr, Gr, and Ri—are Reynolds, Prandtl, flow behaviors in the physical domain. Hence, in the present
heat transfer engineering vol. 36 no. 3 2015
 306 K. YAPICI AND S. OBUT

Table 1 Physical properties of air Table 3 Effect of the mesh refinement on average Nusselt number (Nuavg )
and minimum value of the horizontal velocity (umin ) obtained along the
Physical property Value horizontal centerline (x = 0.5) of the cavity

Density (ρ) 1.19 kg m−3 Re = 100 and Gr = 100 Re = 100 and Gr = 10000
Dynamic viscosity (μ) 1.8447 × 10−5 kg m−1 s−1
Thermal expansion coefficient (β) 3.3627 × 10−3 K−1 Mesh Nuavg umin Nuavg umin
Prandtl number (Pr) 0.712
50 × 50 2.06061 −0.19195 2.81002 −0.31647
100 × 100 2.06274 −0.21236 2.80157 −0.33613
200 × 200 2.06307 −0.21426 2.80046 −0.33856
study, the impact of the mesh refinement on the magnitude of 400 × 400 2.06276 −0.21468 2.79996 −0.33881
the average Nusselt number (Nuavg ) and minimum value of the Extrapolated 2.0636 −0.2148 2.7998 −0.3388
horizontal velocity (umin ) is examined for a flat-shaped cavity Percent errora 0.005 0.055 0.006 0.024
(Case I) with two different Ri numbers: 0.01 and 1. For this pur- aCalculated between dense mesh of the 400 × 400 and extrapolated values.
pose, several runs are performed for mesh sizes starting from
coarse mesh of 50 × 50 to a dense mesh of 400 × 400. The
variations of the average Nusselt number and minimum hori-
zontal velocity through the centerline of the cavity with mesh The results are presented in terms of the variation of the aver-
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 07:24 14 November 2014

refinement are tabulated in Table 3.
To quantify the relative error, a mesh-independent solution
is estimated by extrapolation of the two finest grid results: 200
× 200 and 400 × 400. The Richardson extrapolation technique
[17] is used in that process. The percent error tabulated in Table 3
is a measure of the relative difference between the predictions
obtained on the finest mesh of 400 × 400 and the extrapolated
results. The maximum discrepancy between the finest mesh and
the extrapolated value is only 0.024%. It is also of note that
the variations of the average Nusselt number and the minimum
horizontal velocity with mesh refinement are small.
In Table 4, the average Nusselt number and minimum hori-
zontal velocity through the centerline of the cavity are tabulated
with the corresponding results found in the literature [18–21].
The results compare well with each other. The results obtained
for all runs in this study are carefully examined for grid de-
pendency, and grid-independent results are used throughout the
comparisons.
age Nusselt number, streamline contours and isotherms. Due to
laminar flow, as well as a two-dimensional flow assumption in
the cavity, the numerical experiments are carried out at low and
fixed Re at 100. In order to investigate the effect of Richardson
number on the flow structure and thermal field, three different
Ri numbers, 0.01, 1, and 10, are considered. In addition, the
effects of the number of undulations and their amplitude are
also emphasized in the range of 1 ≤ n ≤ 8 and 0.025 H ≤ A
≤ 0.1H, respectively. To show the heat transfer improvement
of each considered case, the results of Case II–IV are assessed
in terms of the scaled average Nusselt number, which is de-
fined as the ratio of average Nusselt number predicted for an
irregular-shaped cavity to that of a flat-shaped cavity under the
same conditions.
Table 4 Comparison of the average Nusselt number (Nuavg ) and minimum
horizontal (umin ), minimum (vmin ), and maximum (vmax ) vertical velocity
values for various Re at Gr = 100

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION umin vmin vmax

Re References (X = 0.5) (Y = 0.5) (Y = 0.5) Nuavg
In this section, the numerical results obtained using the finite- 1 Present −0.207535 −0.189454 0.188714 1.000358
volume technique are presented for laminar mixed-convection Waheed [18] — — — 1.00033
heat transfer in a differentially heated two-dimensional square 100 Present −0.215956 −0.252215 0.17997 2.062755
lid-driven cavity. The heated bottom wall of the cavity was Waheed [18] −0.21198 −0.251027 0.177125 2.03116
Khanafer −0.2093 −0.2482 0.1720 2.02
modified by sinusoidal, triangular and rectangular waves such et al. [19]
as those shown in Figure 1. In the remainder of the text the Abdelkhalek −0.2147 −0.2485 0.1703 1.985
physical models are referred to as Case I through to Case IV, as [20]
indicated in Figure 1. Al-Amiri [21] −0.2122 −0.2506 0.1765 2.01
400 Present −0.329726 −0.450903 0.30268 4.101065
Waheed [18] −0.31871 −0.441064 0.294505 4.02462
Table 2 Dimensions of the cavity and lid velocity for different Ri values at
Abdelkhalek −0.3104 −0.4435 0.2903 3.91
Re = 100
[20]
Ri W (m) H (m) ulid (m s−1) Al-Amiri [21] −0.3099 −0.4363 0.2866 3.91
1000 Present −0.388894 −0.524529 0.376193 6.633293
0.01 0.00417638 0.00417638 0.00417638 Khanafer −0.3718 −0.5038 0.3588 6.42
1 0.019385 0.019385 0.0799672 et al. [19]
10 0.0417638 0.0417638 0.0371175 Waheed [18] — — — 6.48423

heat transfer engineering vol. 36 no. 3 2015

 K. YAPICI AND S. OBUT
Effect of the Number of Undulations
The predicted streamlines and isotherms for Case II through
Case IV are shown in Figures 2 and 3, respectively, for n = 2 and
A = 0.05H. Each of the columns in these figures corresponds
to different Richardson numbers, as indicated. For comparison
purposes, the streamlines and isotherms of Case I are also in-
cluded at the top of each column. The majority of the cavity
streamlines and isotherms show similar behavior for all cases
and for all studied Ri values. That is, at a particular value of Ri,
the primary vortex location is not affected from the irregularity
of the bottom wall of the cavity; however, as the value of Ri
increases from 0.01 to 10 the location of the primary vortex
shifts toward to the center of the cavity. However, changes in
the flow structure are significant close to the bottom wall.
At a low Ri number of 0.01, as shown in Figure 2a, where
forced convection is dominant over the natural convection, a
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 07:24 14 November 2014
secondary vortex appears in the right and left bottom corner in
all considered cases. The sizes of these vortices made by Case II
through Case IV are higher than that of the Case I. In addition,
for Case IV, two small vortices become visible between the two
Figure 2 Plot of stream function contours at Re = 100, n = 2, and A = 0.05 H
for cavities with a bottom wall modified by regular, sinusoidal, triangular, or
rectangular waves: (a) Ri = 0.01, (b) Ri = 1, and (c) Ri = 10.
heat transfer engineering
307
rectangular ribs. This does not occur for the other two cases
(Case II and Case III).
As the Ri number is increased further to 10, natural convec-
tion becomes the dominant regime over the force convection and
these two vortices combine and form one vortex. It is believed
that this vortex formation strongly influences the overall heat
transfer rate. This phenomenon has been previously pointed out
by Darzi et al. [22], who conducted a numerical study to ex-
plore effect of the fins on mixed-convection heat transfer in a
lid-driven cavity. Their findings revealed that in a natural con-
vection dominated regime, small vortices are formed close to the
sides of the fins and this increases the convective heat transfer
when compared to a cavity without fins.
The isotherms for all studied cases are shown in Figure 3
at various Ri numbers. The thermal field is almost the same at
the bulk of the cavity for each case, at the same Ri number,
while close to the bottom wall the temperature contours follow
the shape of the wall. In terms of the variation of the temper-
ature contours with Ri number, the temperature field seems to
be affected more from the velocity field at high Ri than at lower
Ri numbers. This is attributed to the selected Gr numbers and
Re number used for the numerical simulations. It was men-
tioned previously that in this study Re number is fixed and Gr
number is changed accordingly to investigate heat transfer at
various Ri numbers. At low Ri number, where Gr number is
100, forced convection is the dominant mechanism of the heat
transfer; however, it is not high enough to affect the temperature
field according to the clockwise motion of the fluid, as shown
in Figure 2a. On the other hand, when Ri number is 10, the
heat transfer mainly takes place according to the buoyancy. At
this Ri number, the value of Gr number is high enough (Gr =
105) to make the heat transfer better than for the forced con-
vection dominant case at Ri = 0.01 because of the low value of
Reynolds number and the opposing buoyancy. Hence, the tem-
perature field is affected more when Ri number is 10, as shown in
Figure 3c.
Figure 4 depicts the streamlines obtained numerically for all
considered cases at n = 3 and A = 0.05H. It is worth noting that
the main flow and thermal field in general are not influenced
by increasing the number of undulations. On the other hand,
the two small vortices that were observed for Case IV, at n = 2
and Ri = 0.01, do not form at all. Furthermore, only one vortex
appears between each of the two neighbor rectangular ribs for
all Ri numbers. In addition, by increasing the Ri number to 10,
a small vortex starts to form for Cases II and III, which is not
observed at n = 2.
To clarify the effect of the vortex formation on the heat
transfer rate, the distribution of the local Nusselt number along
the heated bottom surface of each of the cases is depicted in
Figure 5 for three different Richardson numbers. Due to the
presence of sharp corners for the rectangular and triangular wavy
shapes, peaks observed in Case IV and also Case III are sharper
than that of Case II. Moreover, their intensities increase with
increasing Ri numbers. If the peaks formed by the rectangular
wavy shape are analyzed deeply, it can be seen that their intensity
vol. 36 no. 3 2015
 308 K. YAPICI AND S. OBUT
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 07:24 14 November 2014

Figure 3 Plot of isotherms at Re = 100, n = 2, and A = 0.05H for cavities with a bottom wall modified by regular, sinusoidal, triangular, or rectangular waves:
(a) Ri = 0.01, (b) Ri = 1, and (c) Ri = 10.

at the upstream corner of the first undulation is higher than
that of the downstream corner at all Ri numbers, while for the
second undulation these are all comparable. These phenomena
can be attributed to vortex formation taking place between two
rectangular ribs, as already discussed.
The variation of the scaled average Nusselt number versus
the number of undulations, at three different Ri numbers with
A = 0.05 H, is shown in Figure 6 for all studied cases. In this
figure, to measure relative enhancement in heat transfer the
average Nusselt number calculated along the hot wall is scaled

heat transfer engineering vol. 36 no. 3 2015

 K. YAPICI AND S. OBUT 309
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 07:24 14 November 2014

Figure 4 Plot of stream function contours at Re = 100, n = 3, and A = 0.05H

for regular, sinusoidal, triangular or rectangular wavy bottom surface of cavity:
(a) Ri = 0.01, (b) Ri = 1, and (c) Ri = 10.

with the average Nu number of Case I (Nu0 ). Even changing the

scaled average Nusselt number versus the undulations shows
some discrepancies with the Ri number, and overall the trend
is the same for all of the cases. At low Ri number (Ri = 0.01),
as shown in Figure 6a, the scaled average Nusselt number is
increased sharply from n = 1 to n = 2 for all considered cases.
On the other hand, after n = 2, the scaled average Nusselt
number is decreased for Case II and Case III.
This finding for Ri = 0.01 is consistent with the result of Al-
Amiri et al. [10], who studied mixed-convection heat transfer in
a lid-driven cavity of which the bottom wall was characterized
by a sinusoidal wave. In their numerical study, the results were
presented for an undulation number up to 3. In this range, the
maximum average Nusselt number was found when the wavy
surface is characterized with two undulations and when Ri = Figure 5 Variation of the local Nusselt number variation versus x/L for n = 2,
A = 0.05, Re = 100, and Ri = 0.01 (a), Ri = 1 (b), or Ri = 10 (c).
0.01. In our calculation however, to explore the variation of
the average Nu with the number of undulations, we extend the
undulation number up to 8 and found that the maximum average surface wall. However, among all considered cases the highest
Nu takes larger values for n > 3 than that of for n = 2. It is also average Nu is found for Case IV. It is also shown that the heat
clear that at low Ri numbers, the predicted average Nu for all transfer rate increases with increasing numbers of undulations
studied cases is higher than that of those calculated for a flat for all cases and n > 3. The enhancement of heat transfer is
heat transfer engineering vol. 36 no. 3 2015
 310 K. YAPICI AND S. OBUT
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 07:24 14 November 2014

Figure 7 Variation of the scaled average Nusselt number versus Reynolds

number for the rectangular wave shape at various undulations and A = 0.05H.

found to be approximately 12% and 8% for Case IV and Case

II, respectively, at this Ri number.
The predicted scaled average Nu versus undulations at Ri =
1 (shear and buoyancy effect is comparable) is shown in Fig-
ure 6b. The behavior of the scaled average Nu found at this Ri
is similar to that observed for Ri = 0.01. However, the heat
transfer enhancement predicted for all considered cases at this
Ri number was found to be much lower than that obtained for
Ri = 0.01, as expected. It is worth noting that the maximum en-
hancement of heat transfer is still predicted by Case IV. As the Ri
number increased further to 10 (where buoyancy effects become
dominant), the predicted scaled average Nu number depicted in
Figure 6c shows a different behavior to when the Ri = 0.01 and
1. At this high Ri level, maximum heat transfer is predicted by
Case II and n = 2. In addition, for all considered cases the scaled
average Nu number decreases up to n = 3 and after that increases
with n.

Table 5 Predicted dimensionless drag force for three different undulations at

Ri = 0.01, A = 0.05, and Re = 100

Geometry Undulation Drag force

Case I 0 33.998559
Case II 2 33.984702
4 33.984477
8 33.984290
Case III 2 33.986089
4 33.985566
8 33.984855
Case IV 2 33.985787
Figure 6 Variation of the scaled average Nusselt number versus number of 4 33.985270
undulations for A = 0.05H, Re = 100, and Ri = 0.01 (a), Ri = 1 (b), or 8 33.984708
Ri = 10 (c).

heat transfer engineering vol. 36 no. 3 2015

 K. YAPICI AND S. OBUT 311
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 07:24 14 November 2014

Figure 8 Effect of amplitude on the scaled average Nusselt number for n = 2, Figure 9 Effect of amplitude on the scaled average Nusselt number for n = 8,
Re = 100, and Ri = 0.01 (a), Ri = 1 (b), or Ri = 10 (c). Re = 100, and Ri = 0.01 (a), Ri = 1 (b), or Ri = 10 (c).

heat transfer engineering vol. 36 no. 3 2015

 312 K. YAPICI AND S. OBUT
To point out the impact of the Re on the predicted scaled av-
erage Nu for various undulations, Figure 7 was plotted by doing
additional calculations for the case of rectangular wave shape
at Re = 400 and 1000. For comparison purposes, the results
obtained for Re = 100 are also included in this figure. It should
also be noted that in all studied Reynolds numbers, the Grashof
number was selected appropriately to keep the Richardson num-
ber constant at 0.01. As pointed out previously, enhancement of
the scaled average Nu is proportional to undulations at a fixed
Re. However, enhancement of the average Nu with respect to
undulations was found to be minimal at high Re numbers, such
as 1000, as compared to smaller Re. The maximum improve-
ment was observed close to an Re value of 400 for all undulation
numbers.
The preceding discussion on scaled average Nu demonstrated
that rectangular wavy shape provides the highest heat transfer
rate among all of the considered cases. Besides average Nu, the
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 07:24 14 November 2014
drag force exerted on the moving lid should also be taken into
account when assessing the effect of the bottom wall modifica-
tion. For this reason, the drag force (D) exerted by a fluid on the
moving lid is calculated using Eq. (20) [23] and compared for
all considered cases:
 1
∂U
D= dX (20)
0 ∂Y
where D is the drag force. Table 5 tabulates the predicted di-
mensionless drag force on the lid for all considered cases at
three different undulations at Ri = 0.01 and A = 0.05H. It
can be clearly seen that the predicted drag forces for all con-
sidered cases are lower than that of the regular cavity. This
can be attributed to a reduction of the total volume of mov-
ing fluid in the closed cavity due to irregular surfaces. In other
words, reducing the total volume of the cavity by using irreg-
ular surfaces compensated for their negative effective on the
drag force. These results also indicated that at Ri = 0.01 the
drag forces calculated are nearly independent of the shapes
used. The values of drag forces computed for higher Richard-
son numbers (Ri = 1 and 10) are not included in Table 5; how-
ever, similar behavior was also observed for these Richardson
numbers.
Effect of the Amplutide
Another parameter considered in the present study is the
effect of amplitude of the undulations on the heat transfer rate.
Figure 8 shows the variations of the scaled average Nusselt
number versus amplitude for the all of the studied cases at
three different Ri numbers and n = 2. It is seen that for lower
Ri values (0.01), as indicated in Figure 8a, the heat transfer
rate is enhanced almost linearly by increasing the amplitude.
However, the scaled average Nu is much more sensitive to the
amplitude for Case IV. The enhancement of the heat transfer
is found to be approximately 22% and 18% for Case IV and
Case II, respectively. The trend is clearer at Ri = 1, as shown
heat transfer engineering
in Figure 8b. When Ri is increased to 10, at which buoyancy
effects are dominating, the variation of the amplitude does not
have any significant influence on the scaled average Nusselt
number.
Finally, the influence of the amplitude on the average Nusselt
number is also investigated by using the undulations number
n = 8. The numerical results are depicted in Figure 9 for three
different Ri numbers. At this undulation number (n = 8), the
variation of the scaled average Nusselt number remains almost
similar that observed for n = 2. However, at high Ri numbers the
scaled average Nusselt number increases linearly with amplitude
for all cases. This may be attributed to a considerable increase
in the bottom wall heat transfer area when n is changed from
2 to 8. Consequently, using a large number of undulations and
a high amplitude ratio has a positive effect on the heat transfer
rate, even at high Ri numbers.
CONCLUSIONS
In the present study, the laminar mixed-convection heat trans-
fer in a differentially heated lid-driven cavity with a modified
heated wall is investigated numerically. The heated bottom wall
of the cavity is characterized by rectangular, triangular, or sinu-
soidal waves. The calculations are carried out at a fixed Re of 100
and three different Ri numbers, including 0.01, 1, and 10. The
air is chosen as the working fluid. The influence of the number
of undulations and their amplitude on the flow and thermal field
are studied in the range of 1 ≤ n ≤ 8 and 0.025H ≤ A ≤ 0.1H,
respectively. Interesting behaviors of flow and thermal fields
are observed for different heated wall shapes and various Ri
numbers. At a fixed value of the Ri number, the primary vortex
location remains almost the same for all cases studied, but when
Ri increases the location of the primary vortex moves to the cen-
ter of the cavity. In addition, at low Ri number and n = 2, the two
small vortices become apparent only when a rectangular wave is
used.
At a low Ri number (Ri = 0.01), the predicted average Nu
number is found to be higher than that of the flat cavity (Case I)
for all studied irregular walls. However, at this Ri the highest
average Nu number among all considered cases is found for
the rectangular wave shape and n = 8. It is also noted that the
heat transfer rate for all cases increases with increasing number
of undulation. The improvement of heat transfer at low Ri is
approximately 12% for the rectangular wave shape. At high Ri
(Ri = 10), the maximum heat transfer is predicted by the sinu-
soidal wave shape for n = 2. Moreover, for all studied cases the
scaled average Nusselt number first decreases as the undulation
number increases from 2 to 3 and then increases slowly with
increasing n. Numerical results also demonstrate that at low Ri
the average Nusselt number increases almost linearly with in-
creasing amplitude. Finally, the rectangular wave shaped wall is
found to give the highest heat transfer rate among all considered
cases.
vol. 36 no. 3 2015
 K. YAPICI AND S. OBUT 313

FUNDING Square Block on Mixed Convection Inside a Vented Square

Cavity, Nonlinear Analysis: Modeling and Control, vol.
The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by 14, pp. 531–548, 2009.
the Scientific Research Project Fund of Cumhuriyet University [3] Aydin, O., Aiding and Opposing Mechanisms of Mixed
under the project number M-448. Convection in a Shear and Buoyancy-Driven Cavity, In-
ternational Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer,
vol. 26, pp. 1019–1028, 1999.
NOMENCLATURE [4] Oztop, H. F., Zhao, Z., and Yu, B., Fluid Flow Due to
Combined Convection in Lid-Driven Enclosure Having a
A amplitude of cyclic wave Circular Body, International Journal of Heat and Fluid
Cp heat capacity of the fluid, J kg−1 K−1 Flow, vol. 30, pp. 886–901, 2009.
D drag force exerted to the lid [5] Oztop, H. F., and Dagtekin, I., Mixed Convection in Two-
g gravitational acceleration, m2 s−1 Sided Lid-driven Differentially Heated Square Cavity, In-
Gr Grashof number ternational Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 47,
H height of the cavity, m pp. 1761–1769, 2004.
k thermal conductivity of the fluid, W m−1 K-1 [6] Ouertatani, N., Cheikh, N. B., Beya, B. B., Lili, T., and
Lb path length of bottom wall, m Campo, A., Mixed Convection in a Double Lid-driven Cu-
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 07:24 14 November 2014

n undulation number bic Cavity. International Journal of Thermal Sciences, vol.

Nu0 average Nusselt number for regular square cavity 48, pp. 1265–1272, 2009.
Nuavg average Nusselt number [7] Sivasankaran, S., Sivakumar, V., and Prakash, P., Numer-
NuL local Nusselt number ical Study on Mixed Convection in a Lid-Driven Cavity
P dimensionless pressure With Non-Uniform Heating on Both Sidewalls, Interna-
p pressure, Pa tional Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 53, pp.
Pr Prandtl number 4304–4315, 2010.
Re Reynolds number [8] Sharif, M., Laminar Mixed Convection in Shallow Inclined
Ri Richardson number Driven Cavities With Hot Moving Lid on Top and Cooled
S curve length along the bottom wall of the cavity, m From Bottom, Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 27, pp.
T temperature, K 1036–1042, 2007.
U, V dimensionless velocity components [9] Saravanan, S., and Sivaraj, C., Natural Convection
u, v velocity components in x- and y-coordinate, m s−1 in a Differentially Heated Cavity With Parallel Heat-
ulid lid velocity, m s−1 Generating Baffles, Heat Transfer Engineering, vol. 33,
W width of the cavity, m pp. 1264–1271, 2012.
x, y Cartesian coordinates [10] Al-Amiri, A., Khanafer, K., Bull, J., and Pop, I., Effect
X, Y dimensionless Cartesian coordinates of Sinusoidal Wavy Bottom Surface on Mixed Convection
Heat Transfer in a Lid-Driven Cavity, International Jour-
nal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 50, pp. 1771–1780,
Greek Symbols
2007.
[11] Khanafer, K., Al-Azmi, B., Marafie, A., and Pop, I.,
β thermal expansion coefficient, K−1 Non-Darcian Effects on Natural Convection Heat Trans-
λ half of the period of the triangular wave, m fer in a Wavy Porous Enclosure, International Journal
μ dynamic viscosity of the fluid, kg m−1 s−1 of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 52, pp. 1887–1896,
ρ density of the fluid, kg m−3 2009.
θ dimensionless temperature [12] Nasrin, R., and Parvin, S., Hydromagnetic Effect on
ν kinematic viscosity of the fluid, m2 s−1 Mixed Convection in a Lid-Driven Cavity With Sinusoidal
Corrugated Bottom Surface, International Communica-
REFERENCES tions in Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 38, pp. 781–789,
2011.
[1] Oztop, H. F., Zhao, Z., and Yu, B., Conduction-Combined [13] Al-Amiri, A., and Khanafer, K., Fluid–Structure Inter-
Forced and Natural Convection in Lid-Driven Enclosures action Analysis of Mixed Convection Heat Transfer in
Divided by a Vertical Solid Partition, International Com- a Lid-Driven Cavity With a Flexible Bottom Wall, In-
munications in Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 36, pp. ternational Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 54,
661–668, 2009. pp. 3826–3836, 2011.
[2] Rahman, M., Alim, M., Saha, S., and Chowdhury, M., [14] Thianpong, C., Chompookham, T., Skullong, S., and
Effect of the Presence of a Heat Conducting Horizontal Promvonge, P., Thermal Characterization of Turbulent

heat transfer engineering vol. 36 no. 3 2015

 314 K. YAPICI AND S. OBUT
Flow in a Channel With Isosceles Triangular Ribs, In-
ternational Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer,
vol. 36, pp. 712–717, 2009.
[15] Manca, O., Nardini, S., and Ricci, D., Numerical Analysis
of Water Forced Convection in Channels with Differently
Shaped Transverse Ribs, Journal of Applied Mathematics,
vol. 2011, pp. 1–25, 2011.
[16] Ferziger, J. H., and Peric, M., Computational Methods for
Fluid Dynamics, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany, 1997.
[17] Roache, P. J., Quantification of Uncertainty in Computa-
tional Fluid Dynamics, Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics,
vol. 29, pp. 123–160, 1997.
[18] Waheed, M., Mixed Convective Heat Transfer in Rectangu-
lar Enclosures Driven by a Continuously Moving Horizon-
tal Plate, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer,
vol. 52, pp. 5055–5063, 2009.
[19] Khanafer, K., Alamiri, A., and Pop, I., Numerical Simu-
Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 07:24 14 November 2014
lation of Unsteady Mixed Convection in a Driven Cavity
Using an Externally Excited Sliding Lid, European Jour-
nal of Mechanics B/Fluids, vol. 26, pp. 669–687, 2007.
[20] Abdelkhalek, M. M., Mixed Convection in a Square Cav-
ity by a Perturbation Technique, Computational Materials
Science, vol. 42, pp. 212–219, 2008.
[21] Al-Amiri, A. M., Analysis of Momentum and Energy
Transfer in a Lid-Driven Cavity Filled with a Porous
Medium, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer,
vol. 43, pp. 3513–3527, 2000.
[22] Darzi, A. A. R., Farhadi, M., and Sedighi, K., Numeri-
cal Study of the Fin Effect on Mixed Convection Heat
heat transfer engineering
Transfer in a Lid-driven Cavity, Proceedings of the In-
stitution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of
Mechanical Engineering Science, vol. 225, pp. 397–406,
2011.
[23] Rahman, M. M., Rahim, N. A., Saha, S., Billah, M. M.,
Saidur, R., and Ahsan, A., Optimization of Mixed Con-
vection in a Lid-Driven Enclosure With a Heat Generation
Circular Body, Numerical Heat Transfer, Part A, vol. 60,
pp. 629–650, 2011.
Kerim Yapici received his Ph.D. from the Depart-
ment of Chemical Engineering at Middle East Tech-
nical University in 2008. After that he conducted one
year of postdoctoral studies in the Chemical Engi-
neering and Material Science at the University of
California, Davis, CA. Currently, he is a full-time
faculty member in the Department of Chemical En-
gineering at Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey.
His current research fields include fluid mechanics,
computational fluid dynamics, rheology, particle sus-
pension mechanics, and heat transfer and fluid flow.
Salih Obut received his Ph.D. from the Department
of Chemical Engineering, Hacettepe University, in
2011. He is a full-time senior researcher in TUBITAK
Marmara Research Center, Energy Institute, Kocaeli,
Turkey. His main research interests are computational
fluid dynamics, fluid flow and heat transfer, polymer
electrolyte membrane fuel cells, and process control.
vol. 36 no. 3 2015