Effect of Prandtl Number on Laminar Natural Convective Heat Transfer inside Cavity

A numerical investigation of laminar natural convective heat transfer inside cavity tilled with air having left heated wall and cold left wall. The top and bottom walls of the cavity are kept to he adiabatic. The finite volume approach for the Prandlt Number pr=0.7, 3,6,10 and Ra = 10(4) are used to solve the governing equations, in which buoyancy is modeled via the Boussinesq approximation in FLUENT. The visualization of flow patterns and temperature fields are shown by means of streamlines and isotherms, respectively. The influence of Prandlt numbers on the hot wall of the cavity are analyzed. Variations of the maximum value of the dimensionless stream function and Nusselt Number were also presented. The computed result indicated that Nusselt number increases along the length of the hot wall and then gradually decreases near the end of the wall. Also as Prandlt number increases heat transfer rate decreases. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.