NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS WITH FLUID CONVECTION IN TILTED NONRECTANGULAR ENCLOSURES

Numerical experiments were performed on an incompressible fluid contained in a tilted nonrectangular enclosure. Rayleigh numbers of 10(2)-10(5) and Prandtl numbers of 0.001-100 are considered. The wall angles are 22.5-degrees, 45-degrees, and 77.5-degrees with aspect ratios of 3 and 6. Results indicate that the heat transfer and fluid motion within the enclosure are strong functions of Rayleigh number, Prandtl number, and orientation angle of the enclosure. For Rayleigh numbers greater than 10(4) and Prandtl numbers greater than 0.1, a minimum and a maximum mean Nusselt number occurred as the angle of orientation was increased from 0-degrees to 360-degrees. A transition in the mode of circulation occurred at the angles corresponding to the minimum or maximum rate of heat transfer.