Open Access

ARTICLE

NATURAL CONVECTION ANALYSIS OF A RECTANGULAR SHAPE HEATED BLOCK EMBEDDED IN SQUARE CAVITY

Olanrewaju M. Oyewola^a,b,*, Samuel I. Afolabi^b

a School of Mechanical Engineering, Fiji National University, Suva, Fiji
b Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
* Corresponding author: Email; oooyewola001@gmail.com and Olanrewaju.oyewola@fnu.ac.fj

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer 2022, 19, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.5098/hmt.19.38

Abstract

Numerical analysis of heat transfer by convection in a square with a rectangular shape heated block located at the top, center and bottommost has been numerically investigated by applying the principal partial differential equations governing mass, momentum and energy using discontinuous Galerkin weighted procedure for residual finite element with the view of examining the significance of position of rectangular shaped heated block encapsulated within the square cavity. The right wall being adiabatic while the other three walls are maintained at low constant temperature. The heated block is maintained constantly hot. The developed code of COMSOL Multiphysics is employed to perform a parametric study with the aim to determine the influence of Rayleigh number and Nusselt number on isotherm contours and stream functions. The result show that the position of the heated block in the square cavity has significant influence on the heat transfer behaviour and temperature distribution. It is also observed that at specific Rayleigh number, Nusselt number is at maximum around the heated block at the top, middle and bottom position in the cavity considered.

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