ISSN Online: 2377-424X
ISBN Print: 0-89116-909-1
International Heat Transfer Conference 9
AN EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL STUDY OF FREE AND MIXED CONVECTION IN A HORIZONTAL AND INCLINED OPEN SEMI-CYLINDRICAL CAVITY
Аннотация
Steady, laminar, free and mixed convective flows over a semi-cylindrical cavity situated in the lower wall of a flat rectangular duct were investigated numerically using a finite difference technique and experimentally by Mach-Zehnder interferometry. Air was the test medium with a Prandtl number of 0.7. Solutions have been obtained for Rayleigh number of 5.0 × 105, Reynolds number of 400 and Richardson number (Gr/Re2) of 4.46. All the dimensionless numbers were based on the width of the cavity. The angle of inclination (or rotation about the z-axis) of the cavity varied from 0° to 60°. Experimental interferograms showing the temperature fields in semi-cylindrical geometry, the local Nusselt number distributions and the average Nusselt numbers are presented. An interpolation technique was employed to obtain similar results by finite difference method in the open semi-cylindrical cavity with its curved boundary interlocking a rectangular domain. This technique is well illustrated.