Laminar natural convection in inclined rectangular cavities with a localized heat source

The paper investigates numerically laminar natural convection in inclined rectangular cavities with a localized heat source. A mathematical model was constructed where the conservation equations governing the mass, momentum, and thermal energy together with their boundary conditions were solved. The calculation grid used in the solution is investigated to determine the best grid spacing, the required number of iterations, and other parameters which affect the accuracy of the generated solutions. The numerical method and computer program were tested for the case of pure conduction to assure validity and accuracy of the numerical method. The numerical investigation used air as the fluid and covered Rayleigh numbers based on scale length, s/A ranging from 102 to 106, aspect ratio from 0.5 to 5, position ratio from 0.25 to 0.75, heater size ratio from 0.25 to 1, and the tilt angle measured from horizontal was varied from 0 to 180 . The results are presented graphically in the form of streamline and isotherm contour plots.The heat transfer characteristics, velocity profiles, local and average Nusselt numbers were also presented. A correlation was developed which represents the present numerical heat transfer results with an average deviation of less than 11.5%.