Turbulent Natural Convection within an Enclosure with Some Obstacles

The aim of this work is to study turbulent natural convection of a heated body inside an air filled square enclosure at Ra = 1012. A CFD code has been developed to investigate the effects of aspect ratio and position of the body on heat transfer inside the cavity. An approximated situation of the body at which a minimum heat transfer occurs is desired. Two-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations besides turbulence model based on standard wall functions are employed to simulate the problem. The equations are discretized using finite volume method in a staggered grid, pressure and velocity are coupled with SIMPLE algorithm and the final systems of algebraic equations are solved by Strongly Implicit Method. The results indicate that the temperature field is highly stratified and 34.9 percent of heat transfer reduction is observed by horizontal installation of the body at upper left hand side of the enclosure.