Numerical Investigation of Mixed Convection in a Lid-Driven Square Cavity with and Without Fin

Abstract

Mixed convection in a lid-driven square cavity with an adiabatic fin placed at the middle of the left and bottom wall is studied. A two-dimensional (2D), steady, and laminar flow with stable vertical temperature gradient conditions is simulated. Vorticity-stream function formulation is employed to analyze the energy transport and the resulting governing equations are discretized using finite difference method. Grid convergence index method is used to confirm the reliability of results obtained from the adopted grid. Top wall of the cavity moves from left to right and right to left direction alternatively, while the other three walls are stationary. An isothermal hot and cold temperature boundary condition is applied, respectively, at the top and bottom walls, while an adiabatic boundary condition is applied 484to the vertical sidewalls of the cavity and to the fin. Taking the fin width as 2.5% of the cavity’s side, its length is varied from 5 to 20%. Cavity’s thermo-hydraulics is investigated at Richardson number (Ri) equal to 1. Results are presented in terms of streamlines, isotherms, average, and local Nusselt numbers.