Steady mixed convection across a confined square cylinder

The effects of cross-buoyancy and of Prandtl number on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of an isothermal square cylinder confined in a channel has been investigated here. The numerical results have been presented for the range of conditions as: 1 ≤ Re ≤ 30, 0.7 ≤ Pr ≤ 100 (the maximum value of Peclet number being 3000) and 0 ≤ Ri ≤ 1for a fixed blockage ratio of 0.125. The overall drag and lift coefficients, local and average Nusselt numbers and the representative streamline and isotherm plots are presented to elucidate the role of Reynolds number, Prandtl number and Richardson number. The drag coefficient is found to be less sensitive to the Richardson number than the lift coefficient.