MIXED CONVECTION FLOW IN A RECTANGULAR VENTILATED CAVITY WITH A HEAT CONDUCTING SOLID CIRCULAR CYLINDER AT THE CENTER

A numerical investigation has been carried out for mixed convection flow in a rectangular ventilated cavity with a heat conducting solid circular cylinder at the center. Forced convection flow conditions were imposed by providing an inlet at the bottom of the left wall and an outlet vent at the top to the other sidewall. In this paper, the effect of cavity aspect ratio as well as the mixed convection parameter on the flow and heat transfer characteristics were analyzed. Finite element method was used to carry out the investigation. Computations were done for mixed convective flow with the Richardson number Ri ranging from 0.0 to 5.0, cavity aspect ratio from 0.5 to 2.0 and Reynolds number, Re of 100. The basic nature of the resulting interaction between the forced external air stream and the buoyancy-driven flow by the heat source was explained by the patterns of the streamlines and isotherms. The computational results indicated that the flow and thermal fields as well as average Nusselt number at the hot wall, average temperature of the fluid and the temperature at the cylinder center strongly depended on the cavity aspect ratio and mixed convection parameter Ri.