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ARTICLE

Numerical Study of Natural Convective Heat Transfer in an Air Filled Square Cavity Heated from Below and Symmetrically Cooled from the Sides with a Partition in the Hot Wall

Farah Zemani-Kaci^*, Amina Sabeur-Bendhina

Laboratoire des Sciences et Ingénierie Maritimes, Faculté de Génie Mécanique, USTO-MB, BP 1505 El M’naouer, Oran, 31000, Algérie

* Corresponding Author: Farah Zemani-Kaci. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Materials and Energy an Updated Image for 2021)

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2023, 19(2), 513-539. https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2022.021974

Received 15 February 2022; Accepted 22 March 2022; Issue published 29 August 2022

Abstract

A two-dimensional numerical study of laminar natural convection in a square enclosure filled with air with a wall partially heated on the bottom is presented. The heat source is located on the lower wall with different heated widths varied from 20 to 80%(ε = 0.2–0.8) of the total width of the lower wall and different heights h = H/4 and H/2 of the partition. The effect of the partition height on the main system dynamics is investigated through solution of the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations and the energy equation by means of a finite volume method based on the SIMPLE algorithm. The influence of the Rayleigh number (Ra = 10³ to 10⁶) and the hot wall length is also examined. It is shown that the average Nusselt number grows when ε increases and when h decreases. For a given value of ε and h, the average Nusselt number increases as Ra increases. It is concluded that the partition height causes a decrease in the average Nusselt number.

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