Numerical simulation of turbulent natural convection in electronic enclosure

Turbulent natural convection in an electronic enclosure having finite thickness heat-conducting walls at local heating at the bottom of the cavity provided that convective- radiative heat exchange with environment on one of the external borders has been numerically studied. Mathematical simulation has been carried out in terms of the dimensionless Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations in stream function - vorticity formulations. The formulation comprises the standard two equation k-ε turbulence model with wall functions, along with the Boussinesq approximation, for the flow and heat transfer. The Grashof number based on the length of the gas cavity was varied from 10⁷ to 10⁹. Detailed results including stream lines, temperature profiles and correlation for the average Nusselt number in terms of Grashof number have been obtained.