Numerical study on effect of vent locations on natural convection in an enclosure with an internal heat source

Natural convection is a widely studied phenomenon because of the extensive applications in cooling of large scale electrical and electronic equipments. The current study involves study of effect of vent locations on natural convection in enclosures with partial openings having an internal heat source. It involves the numerical simulation of 2D steady state natural convection in enclosure of different aspect ratios (H/W = 1, 2 and 3) for lower Rayleigh numbers (Rah = 103, 104 and 105). Four different configurations have been considered based on the number and position of vents — same side (SS), diagonal side (DS), one inlet two outlets (1I2O) and two inlets one inlet (2I1O). The mass flow rate driven through the enclosure and the average Nusselt number over the heater surface for all the four configurations have been compared. It is found that the 2I1O configuration yielded better heat transfer rates of the four considered. It was found that the mass flow rates and Nu increased with increase in Rah and decrease in the aspect ratio.