Natural convection heat transfer in trapezoidal enclosure with baffles attached to heated wall

Abstract EN

A two-dimensional solution of natural convection heat transfer in a trapezoidal enclosure using baffles attached to hot wall has been analyzed numerically.

The vertical and inclined walls of the enclosure are isothermal while the bottom and top horizontal walls are insulated and the temperature of the vertical wall is higher than the temperature of the inclined wall.

Governing equations are solved using the finite difference technique.

The study included three cases : one baffle at position 0.5, two baffles at positions 0.2 and 0.5, and three baffles at positions 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6, in addition to Rayleigh number 103, 104 and 105 and baffle length of 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 used as governing parameters that are effective on heat transfer and fluid flow.

Results for the mean Nusselt number and contour maps of the streamlines and isotherms are presented.

It is found that Nusselt number is an increasing with increasing in Rayleigh number while decreasing with increasing in the baffle length and number of baffles.