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This study investigates natural convection in a differentially heated cavity using numerical simulations in ANSYS Fluent, focusing on a 2D square geometry with specific boundary conditions. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of grid independence and the Boussinesq approximation in accurately modeling heat transfer, with results showing a Nusselt number close to theoretical values. The research highlights the importance of computational methods in understanding buoyancy-driven flows in engineering applications.

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cfd 5

This study investigates natural convection in a differentially heated cavity using numerical simulations in ANSYS Fluent, focusing on a 2D square geometry with specific boundary conditions. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of grid independence and the Boussinesq approximation in accurately modeling heat transfer, with results showing a Nusselt number close to theoretical values. The research highlights the importance of computational methods in understanding buoyancy-driven flows in engineering applications.

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anandal2004
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© © All Rights Reserved
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NATURAL CONVECTION IN CAVITY

Abstract: Natural convection plays a crucial role in various engineering applications,


particularly in heat transfer systems. This study focuses on the numerical simulation of
natural convection in a differentially heated cavity using ANSYS Fluent. A 2D square
geometry of 0.0243m was considered, and four different grids were analyzed to ensure
grid independence, where a finer grid provided accurate results. The study employs the
Boussinesq approximation for air properties, and the boundary conditions include a heated
left wall at 323K and a cooled right wall at 313K. In this study we take Rayleigh number is
10000 and find nusselt number with the help of heat flux. The results include temperature
contours and heat flux values on both heated and cooled walls. The findings provide
insights into the convective heat transfer phenomenon, demonstrating the reliability of
numerical simulations in analyzing natural convection.

Keywords:
●​ Porous Medium
●​ Rayleigh Number
●​ Darcy Number
●​ Nusselt number
●​ CFD
●​ Heat flux
●​ Boussinesq Approximation

Introduction: Fluid movement arising from natural convection occurs when fluid temperature
changes cause buoyancy-based motion throughout the material. Natural and engineered
environments contain porous materials which are composed of networks of solid components that
exist in multiple natural systems and engineered structures such as geological formations and
industrial catalyst structures and biological tissues.
Engineers need to comprehend how heat transfer and fluid movement behave within porous
systems in order to maximize various engineering applications. The analysis of interacting fluids
with precision now relies on CFD simulations. The engineering industry utilizes Ansys Fluent as a
popular tool for effective analysis of natural convection within porous materials. The investigation
of porous material natural convection runs on Ansys Fluent software. The document consists of
fundamental parts that establish the theoretical principles along with equations and border
conditions needed for modeling followed by in-depth detail regarding computational approaches
and their numerical methods and solution procedures and turbulent flow modeling requirements.
Literature review: 1. "Non-Darcy Buoyancy-Driven Flows in Fluid-Saturated Porous
Media: The Use of Asymptotic Computational Fluid Dynamics (ACFD) Approach" by D.
Jaya Krishna, Tanmay Basak, and Sarit K. Das
The text presents an overview of CFD simulations at diverse Rayleigh numbers along with
confirming simulation outcomes.

2. "Heat and Mass Transfer: Fundamentals & Applications (5th Edition)" by Yunus A.
Çengel and Afshin
J. Ghajar – Explains natural convection through practical examples and simplified models.

3. "Convection Through Porous Media" by Donald A. Nield and Adrian Bejan – Discusses
theoretical
and empirical approaches to convection in porous media, along with engineering and
scientific
applications.

4. "Advances in Heat Transfer, Vol. 13: Simultaneous Heat, Mass, and Momentum
Transfer in Porous
This paper provides insights into the ruling equations together with the Darcy-Brinkman
equation.
Scientists used theoretical and experimental information to derive the equation.
.

Numerical Methodology:
Boundary conditions:
• Rayleigh Number: 10⁴, 10⁵, 10⁶, 10⁷
• Prandtl Number: 1
• Hot Wall Temperature: 323 K
• Cold Wall Temperature: 313 K Air Properties at 318 K:
• Density: 1.1105 kg/m³
• Thermal Conductivity: 0.02791 W/m-K
• Specific Heat Capacity: 1005 J/kg-K
• Thermal Diffusivity: 25.0157 × 10⁻⁶ m²/s
• Viscosity: 2.778 × 10⁻⁵ kg/m-s

Grid independence:
Heat flux stability was evaluated by altering the mesh size in a grid independence study for
Ra = 10⁷. The most dependable mesh size was determined to be 60 x 60 since findings
from finer grids were barely affected.
Results and Discussion:

The temperature contour reveals the heat dispersal in the cavity where the left wall
maintains 323 K hot red temperature and the right wall yields 313 K cool blue temperature
values. Heat diffuses throughout the area because heated wall air rises to produce
convection currents while air descending from the cold wall transitions from red to blue.
The velocity contour track displays convection currents which create symmetrical flow
patterns (streamlines). The cavity walls are indicated as blue due to the no slip boundary
condition while the red areas near the walls indicate enhanced velocities because of
buoyancy forces and the central portion displays reduced flow velocities (blue). These
visualization elements show how thermal fluid circulation through natural convection
changes heat distribution patterns inside the cavity.
The analysis of thermal performance used the extracted heat flux measurements from the
left (hot) wall and right (cold) wall. Heat flux obtained a value of 25.40363w/𝑚 through
Mesh 4 known as Finer Grid Mess. This simulation established that smoother meshing
produces heat flux forecasts with high accuracy since the Nusselt Number reached 2.226
which approaches the theoretical 2.234 value. The steady-state
The simulation confirmed the expected heat transmission behavior of buoyancy-driven flow
under observation.

Conclusions:
ANSYS Fluent was successfully used to do a numerical investigation of natural convection
in a differentially heated chamber. The buoyancy-driven flow was well captured by the
Boussinesq approximation. The significance of employing a refined mesh for precise
outcomes was validated by a grid independence research. The study emphasizes how
important computational methods are for studying natural convection.

References:
[1]​ Çengel, Y. A., & Ghajar, A. J. (2015). Heat and Mass Transfer:
Fundamentals & Applications (5th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
[2]​ Nield, D. A., & Bejan, A. (2017). Convection Through Porous Media (4th
ed.). Springer.
[3]​ Advances in Heat Transfer, Vol. 13: Simultaneous Heat, Mass, and
Momentum Transfer in Porous Media (2011). Elsevier.
[4]​ Jaya Krishna, D., Basak, T., & Das, S. K. (2020). Non-Darcy
Buoyancy-Driven Flows in Fluid-Saturated Porous Media: The Use of
Asymptotic Computational Fluid Dynamics (ACFD) Approach. International
Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 148, 119042.

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