Natural convection of micropolar fluid in an enclosure with boundary element method

The contribution deals with numerical simulation of natural convection in micropolar fluids, describing flow of suspensions with rigid and underformable particles with own rotation. The micropolar fluid flow theory is incorporated into the framework of a velocity-vorticity formulation of Navier-Stokes equations. The governing equations are derived in differential and integral form, resulting from the application of a boundary element method (BEM). In integral transformations, the diffusion-convection fundamental solution for flow kinetics, including vorticity transport, heat transport and microrotation transport, is implemented. The natural convection test case is the benchmark case of natural convection in a square cavity, and computations are performed for Rayleigh number values up to 10(7). The results show, which microrotation of particles in suspension in general decreases overall heat transfer from the heated wall and should not therefore be neglected when Computing heat and fluid flow of micropolar fluids. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.