Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
653071 | International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer | 2015 | 7 Pages |
Abstract
The transition from steady to unsteady coupled thermal boundary layers induced by a fin on the partition of a differentially heated cavity was numerically investigated. Numerical simulations were performed over the range of Rayleigh numbers from Ra = 107 to 2 Ã 1010 (Pr = 6.63). The temporal development and spatial structure of natural convection flows in the partitioned cavity with a fin are described. It has been demonstrated that the fin may induce a transition to unsteady coupled thermal boundary layers and the critical Rayleigh number for the occurrence of the transition is between 3.5 and 3.6 Ã 108. Furthermore, the peak frequency of the oscillations induced by the fin has been obtained through spectral analysis. It has been found that the flow rate through the cavity with a fin is larger than that without a fin under unsteady flow, indicating that the fin may improve unsteady flow in the partition cavity.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes
Authors
Feng Xu,