Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-3, Issue-4, 2017
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
Numerical Study of Natural Convection in Tiny
Closed Cavities with Different Aspect Ratios
A. B. Patil1 & Dr. S. N. Singh2
1,2
Department of Mechanical engineering, IIT-ISM Dhanbad
Abstract: Natural convection in closed cavities has
been studied extensively in recent decades. This
spontaneous method of heat transfer has a wide
range of applications in engineering field. In the
present work two dimensional steady state laminar
natural convection is studied numerically for
uniformly heated small air filled closed cavity with
adiabatic top and bottom walls. The temperature of
the left heated wall and cooled right wall were
assumed to be constant. The governing equations
were iteratively solved using the finite difference
approach. In this paper, the effects of the Rayleigh
number and the aspect ratios on the local and
average Nusselt numbers were examined. Flow and
thermal fields were exhibited by means of
streamlines and isotherms, respectively. The
average Nusselt number was correlated to the
Rayleigh number and aspect ratio based on curve
fitting. The investigation covers the range of 103-
107 for Rayleigh number and was done at Prandtl
number equal to 0.72. The result shows the average
Nusselt number is the increasing function of
Rayleigh number. As aspect ratio increases Nusselt
number increases along the hot wall of the cavity.
As Rayleigh number increases Nusselt number
increases. Result indicates that at constant aspect
ratio, with increase in Rayleigh number heat
transfer rate increases.
1. Introduction
According to Incropera and Dewitt (2002),
convection is the term utilized to describe the
transfer of energy between a surface and a fluid in
movement over this surface. Although the diffusion
mechanism (random motion of fluid molecules)
contributes to this transfer, the dominant
contribution is generally defined as the global
movement or majority of the fluid particles.
Situations in which the fluid is not forced to pass
over the surface, but still there is convection
current within the fluid, are called free or natural
convection and are originated when a force acts on
a fluid in which there are gradients of specific
mass. The net effect is a buoyant force which
induces free convection currents. In the most
common case, the specific mass gradient is due to
the temperature gradient, and force is due to the
gravitational field.
Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Natural convection in enclosures is a topic of
contemporary importance because enclosures filled
with fluid are central components in a long list of
engineering and geophysical systems with various
geometries. The flow and heat transfer induced, for
example, in the air space of a double-pane window
system differs fundamentally from the external
natural convection in which boundary layer
considered. There have been numerous
investigations conducted on natural convection in
empty cavities under various configurations and
boundary conditions [1-3].
The first unified and comprehensive review of
this subject was made by Ostrach [4, 5]. Lo et al.
studied convection in cavities heated from left
vertical wall and cooled from opposite vertical wall
with both horizontal walls insulated using
differential quadrature method. Numerical results
are reported for several values of width-to-height
aspect ratio of enclosure and Rayleigh number [6].
Basak et al have studied the effect of uniform and
non-uniform temperature at the bottom wall on
natural convection in square cavity for Rayleigh
numbers from 103 to 105 using Galarkin finite
element method [7].They reported that the uniform
temperature gives more heat transfer than the non-
uniform temperature. Ganzarolli and Milanez [10]
numerically analyzed permanent natural convection
in a cavity heated at base and cooled on the sides.
Corcione studied natural convection in a
rectangular cavity heated from below and cooled
from top as well as sides for variety of thermal
boundary conditions. Numerical results are
reported for several values of both aspect ratios of
enclosure and Rayleigh Numbers [6].
Although natural convection in enclosures has
been extensively studied by several researchers
both numerically and experimentally In this sense
the buoyancy-driven flow is a reliable case to test
and validate computer codes such as those used in
this paper The thermally driven flow in square
cavity with adiabatic top and bottom walls is one of
the classical problems in the heat transfer literature.
It is used to test the numerical algorithms designed
for the integration of the Navier-Stokes equations
in incompressible flows. So the objective of this
paper is to document the numerical data of steady
state laminar natural convective heat transfer inside
a small closed cavity filled with air having heated
left wall and cooled right wall for the range of Ra
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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-3, Issue-4, 2017
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in

from 103 107 for aspect ratios ranging from 0.5 to surface
3. The top and bottom walls of the cavities are Average Nusselt number over the hot
adiabatic. The cavity illustrated in Fig.1 is chosen surface
for simulating natural convective flow and heat
transfer characteristics. It consists of dimensions Table 2. Greek Symbols
LH. The gravitational force is acting downwards.
The aspect ratio of the cavity is defined as A=H/L. isobaric cubic expansivity of air
The top and bottom walls are adiabatic.
temperature difference,
2
kinematic viscosity of air, m /s
-1
vorticity , s
3
density of the fluid, kg/m

stream function
non-dimensional
temperature,
2
thermal diffusivity, m /s
Distance between successive node
points in x and y direction respectively

Figure 1. Schematic of the geometry
Table 1. Nomenclature
G acceleration due to gravity, 9.81 m/s
2 dimensional. The viscous dissipation term in the
M, N number of grid point in X,Y direction
x, y vertical and horizontal distances
respectively, m
P pressure at any location in the
computational domain, Pa
T temperature at any location in the
computational domain, K
temperature of hot and cold walls
respectively, K
2. Mathematical Formulation
Natural convection is governed by the
differential equations expressing conservation of
mass, momentum and energy. The present flow is
considered steady, laminar, incompressible and two
energy equation is neglected. The Boussinesq
approximation is invoked for the fluid properties to
relate density changes to temperature changes, and
to couple in this way the temperature field to the
flow field. Then the governing equations for steady
natural convection can be expressed in the
dimensionless form as:

u, v velocity of fluid in x and y directions

.... (2)
respectively, m/s
U,V non-dimensional velocities in x and y
directions respectively ,m/s

In order to avoid the complexity arise due the

X, Y non-dimensional vertical and non-linearity of the pressure term; the pressure
horizontal distances, terms from momentum equations are eliminated by
using the velocity-stream function algorithm.
Now using the definitions of stream function ( )
Gr Grashof number and vorticity ( )
Pr Prandtl number ; And
Ra Rayleigh number
specific heat at constant pressure,
KJ/Kg.K The above equation can be reduced to following
Local Nusselt number over the hot forms as:

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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-3, Issue-4, 2017
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in

Y=0 U=V= =0
Y=1 U=V= =0
Where, The wall vorticity is an extremely important
evaluation. At no-slip boundaries, is produced
at the bottom boundary using
In terms of the stream function, the equation
defining the vorticity becomes This will give the derived boundary condition at
the walls of the cavities as,
.

3. Method of Solution
The derived nonlinear partial differential
equations are solved here by using the finite
difference technique so that the boundary
conditions can be applied easily as follows:
By using the central differencing technique the non
dimensionalized governing equation can be written
as,

Figure 2. Schematic of enclosure configurations

The local heat transfer coefficient along the heated

wall is obtained from the heat balance that gives an
And expression for Nusselt number as,

And the average convective Nusselt number is

calculated by integrating the above temperature
gradient over the vertical wall

This can be calculated numerically by Simpsons

Where and can be written as, method.

5. Numerical Procedure
Again the wall vorticity must be found from the
stream function. The stream function is constant on In the present investigation, the set of governing
the walls; equations are integrated over the finite differences,
which produces a set of algebraic equations. The
successive over relaxation algorithm with the
parameter B=1.2 is used to solve the coupled
system of governing equations. Discretization of
the momentum and energy equations is performed
by a second order central differencing scheme.
4. Boundary Conditions Convergence criterion considered as residuals is
The boundary conditions of velocity and admitted of 10-3 for momentum, continuity
temperature fields are shown in Fig. and presented equations and for the energy equation. The
as: calculations are carried out by developing a
Since the boundaries meet, the constant must be FORTRAN code. The uniform grid system of
the same on all boundaries, so 5151 is adopted here.
At X=0 U=V= =0
X=1 U=V= =0

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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-3, Issue-4, 2017
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in

6. Results and Discussion (103) there is no significant variation in streamlines

Different cases with the vertical left hot wall of
the closed cavity were studied. The effects of the
Rayleigh number from 103 to 107 and aspect ratio
H/L=0.5, 1, 2, 3 were systematically investigated.
Comparisons of the flow field and average Nusselt
numbers along different aspect ratio were
presented. When Ra greater than critical value, the
buoyant force overcomes the fluid resistance and
initiates natural convection currents. As for low Ra
as well as isotherms with aspect ratio; though its
been considered the only variations shown in below
figures are for 104 Ra < 107
The flow fields are shown by means of
streamlines shown below. Due to the buoyant
effects caused by the temperature difference
between the left hot wall and right cold wall,
recirculating vortices are formed which are clearly
demonstrated by the closed streamlines.

Figure 3.Streamlines formation within the cavity of aspect ratio A=0.5 for Rayleigh numbers=10 4,105,106 and 107

Figure 4.Streamlines formation within the cavity of aspect ratio A=1 for Rayleigh numbers=10 4,105,106 and 107

Figure 5.Streamlines formation within the cavity of aspect ratio A=2 for Rayleigh numbers=10 4,105,106 and 107

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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-3, Issue-4, 2017
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in

Figure 6.Streamlines formation within the cavity of aspect ratio A=3 for Rayleigh numbers=10 4,105,106 and 107

And get inclined towards the cold wall as Ra

In the above figures we can observe that as the
Rayleigh number increases the vortices formed
become circular to elliptical and denser. For aspect
ratio of A=0.5 as there is enough gap between hot
and cold surfaces we can observe two different
whirls producing at higher Ra in the middle section
of the cavity. This is mainly because of higher
temperature gradients which lead to higher density
gradients and as the height of the cavity increases
the streamlines become more and more elliptical
increases due to the rapid heat transfer rates.
Similarly the thermal fields are presented in the
form of isotherms in figures shown below with
same arrangement as for streamlines. The
isotherms pattern reveals that as Rayleigh number
increases the packing of isotherms near the active
walls become prominent implying rise in Nusselt
number. The isotherms are orthogonal at the
insulated walls ensure that the heat transfer rate
becomes zero.

Figure 7.Isotherm contour formation within the cavity of aspect ratio A=0.5 for Rayleigh number=104,105,106and 107

Figure 8.Isotherm contour formation within the cavity of aspect ratio A=1 for Rayleigh number=104,105,106 and 107

Figure 9.Isotherm contour formation within the cavity of aspect ratio A=2 for Rayleigh number=104,105,106 and 107

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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-3, Issue-4, 2017
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in

Figure 10.Isotherm contour formation within the cavity of aspect ratio A=3 for Rayleigh number=104,105,106 and 107

As Rayleigh number increases the enhanced natural
convection becomes dominant and heat transfer
rate increases, velocity increases and the isotherms
are no longer orthogonal, they bend. More bended
the contour is more is the heat transfer rate. As
stated earlier for isostreams that with the increment
in the aspect ratio of cavity more enhanced heat
transfer rates can be observed which leads to
formation of vortices along the field. To indicate
the behavior of the heat transfer rates in the cavity
the spatial distribution of local Nusselt number
along the hot section is shown in below figures
which show that it depends on both aspect ratio as
well as Rayleigh number. It is observed that the
Nusselt number decreases from bottom to top; this
is due to the fact that as height increases the
temperature gradient along the wall becomes less.

Figure 11.Variation of local Nusselt no. along the hot wall with varying Ra for AR=0.5,1,2,3 respectively

For the smaller Rayleigh number (Ra104) the becomes more pronounced . Similarly is the case
diffusion is dominant resulting in the smaller with increasing aspect ratio as the aspect ratio
Nusselt number; but as the Rayleigh number increases the variation becomes more and more
increases convection is enhanced and the variation steep. Variation of average heat transfer coefficient

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Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
Vol-3, Issue-4, 2017
ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in
along the hot wall of the cavity for different aspect
ratios and Rayleigh numbers are plotted in Figure
11. As Rayleigh number increases heat transfer rate
along the hot wall of the cavity increases at
constant aspect ratio but at constant Rayleigh
number heat transfer rate along the same increases
as aspect ratio increases.
Figure 12. Average Nusselt no. dependency on
Rayleigh no. for different aspect ratios
It is of interest to note that Nusselt number is
almost constant independent of Ra for lower values
of Rayleigh numbers (Ra5103) thats why we convection for different values of Ra and AR.
can observe the cluster of points near each other for
lower Ra.
From the data obtained and plotted graphs to
demonstrate the behavior of the Nusselt number
with the Rayleigh number and aspect ratio a
correlation is obtained using the regression analysis
with the value of coefficient of regression 0.9612
which presented the good fit as;
A parity plot is developed with the trend line for
showing the closeness of the derived equation with
the set of computed data.
Figure 13. Parity plot between computed and
regression values
Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR)
7. Conclusion
A numerical study on steady laminar natural
convective heat transfer inside a closed cavity filled
with air was carried out. The effects of Rayleigh
number, aspect ratio on the flow and heat transfer
were systematically studied. From the result and
discussion we conclude that as Raleigh number
increases streamlines become more densely packed
next to the walls. Also at constant values of aspect
ratio as Ra increases the core of the vortices
becomes elliptical. As Rayleigh number increases
the enhanced natural convection becomes dominant
and the additional friction is negligible. As
Rayleigh number increases heat transfer rate
increases, velocity increases and the isotherms are
no longer orthogonal, they bends. Result indicates
that at constant aspect ratio as Rayleigh Number
increases Nussetl number increases along the hot
wall of the cavity and heat transfer rate also
increases similarly at constant Rayleigh number as
Aspect ratio increases Nusselt number increases
too along the same. Further a useful correlation is
developed for average Nusselt number within the
cavity to understand the extent of heat transfer by
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