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Computational Analysis of Mixed Convection Heat Transfer in a Ventilated

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Proceedings of the 3rd BSME-ASME International Conference on Thermal Engineering
20-22 December, 2006, Dhaka, Bangladesh

COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS OF MIXED CONVECTION HEAT TRANSFER IN

A VENTILATED ENCLOSURE

Md. Tofiqul Islam, Sumon Saha, Md. Arif Hasan Mamun and C M Feroz
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology,
Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
mtislam@me.buet.ac.bd

ABSTRACT

Mixed convection heat transfer in a ventilated square enclosure with localized heat
source at the left side of the bottom wall is studied numerically. Fresh and cold air is
supplied from the below and the contaminated and warm air is released through the
outlet. This enclosure represents a practical application of air conditioning and
ventilation system. Ventilation effectiveness is a function of the interaction between
the free convection and forced convection. Galerkin residual finite element method is
adopted here for discretising the two-dimensional governing equations. Emphasis is
given on the influence of the buoyancy parameter (Gr) at a fixed Prandtl number (Pr)
within the flow and thermal fields. The computational results, presented in the form
of streamlines and isotherms for a wide range of Grashof number (103 ≤ Gr ≤ 106), a
fixed Reynolds number of 100 and three different discrete heat source size (0.125 ≤ ε
≤ 0.5). The dependency of the maximum temperature and the average Nusselt number
of the partially heated bottom wall for different flow conditions has been observed.

Keywords: Mixed convection, Richardson number, Ventilation system, Finite element

method.

1. INTRODUCTION

Mixed convection flow through a square vented enclosure with partially heated bottom
wall is often encountered in air conditioning system. Air heating is one of the preferred
methods for conditioning the room space especially in cold countries. With the increasing
living standard, people pay special attention to the indoor air quality (IAQ), which is essential
for the people’s health and work efficiency [1–2]. To ensure better IAQ, a new air
conditioning system with localized heat source and displacement ventilation has been
proposed. The interaction between natural convection and forced convection is the main
theme for the displacement ventilation system. Deng and Tang [3] investigated numerically
similar type of mixed convection problem, with a heat source lying on the left half of the floor
and different outlet positions. They found that the outlet, close to heat source, is effective
design for the ventilation of heat, but the indoor air quality (IAQ) in the working area
becomes worse. To optimize the IAQ with the heat release effectiveness, the best position for
the outlet will be on the same side of the inlet. Deng et al. [4] studied the double diffusive
mixed convection in a ventilated enclosure with discrete heat and contaminant sources and
traced the path of fluid, heat and contaminant transport. They concluded that moderate
buoyancy natural convection is required for effective heat and contaminant removal.
The schematic diagram of the present configuration is shown in fig. 1. The fresh and cold
air having uniform velocity (ui) and temperature (Ti) is supplied from the inlet port at the
lower part of the left side wall with opening size of L/8 and then spreads inside an enclosure
of equal length and height of L. When this air comes closer to the heat source of uniform heat
flux (q) locating on the left part of the floor, it becomes warm and contaminated and moves
upwards to the top where it exits through outlet with same velocity at inlet and zero diffusion
flux. The objective of the present work is to investigate the fluid flow and heat transfer
characteristics of the displacement ventilation using finite element method. The effects of the
governing parameter Gr, then the influence of the size of discrete heat source for efficient
heat removal, are also analyzed.

L/8

y g

x
q
L/8

Ls
L

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of a vented enclosure of square shape

2. MATHEMATICAL MODEL

The flow in the vented enclosure is considered to be two-dimensional, steady and laminar
with neglecting viscous dissipation, compressibility effect and no heat generation. The
physical properties are assumed to be constant except for the change of density with
temperature (Boussinesq approximation). Considering the above mentioned assumptions, the
governing equations can be written in non-dimensional form as follows:
∂U ∂V
+ =0 (1)
∂X ∂Y
∂ ∂ ∂P 1
(UU ) + (VU ) = − + ∇ 2U (2)
∂X ∂Y ∂X Gr
∂ ∂ ∂P 1
(UV ) + (VV ) = − + ∇ 2V + θ (3)
∂X ∂Y ∂Y Gr
∂ ∂ 1
(Uθ ) + (Vθ ) = ∇ 2θ (4)
∂X ∂Y Pr Gr
The above governing equations are non-dimensionalized using the following scales:
x y qL T − Ti u v p
X = , Y = , ∆T = ,θ = ,U = ,V = ,P = (5)
L L k ∆T gβ∆TL gβ ∆TL ρgβ∆TL
The Grashof number (Gr), the Prandtl number (Pr), the Reynolds number (Re), and the
Richardson number (Ri) are given by
βgqL4 υ uL Gr
Gr = , Pr = , Re = i , Ri = (6)
2
υ k α υ Re 2
where α, β, k, ρ and υ are thermal diffusivity, thermal expansion coefficient, thermal
conductivity, fluid density and kinematic viscosity respectively.
The average heat transfer coefficient h is obtained as
1 Ls q
h= ∫
Ls 0 Ts (x ) − Ti
dx (7)

where Ls is the length of the heat source and Ts(x) is the local temperature of heat source. The
average Nusselt number of the heated wall is calculated as
hL 1 ε 1
Nu = = ∫
k ε 0 θs (X )
dX (8)

where θs (X) is the local dimensionless temperature and ε is the normalized heat source length
(Ls/L).
3. NUMERICAL PROCEDURE

Above governing equations are discretized by using Galerkin residual finite element
method of FEMLAB [5]. The numerical simulations are performed varying the number of
elements of the grid in order to increase the accuracy and efficiency for the solutions. Non-
uniform triangular mesh structures are employed in the analysis, with denser grids clustering
in regions near the heat sources and the enclosure walls. The mesh structure is changed for
each ε because of the shifted position of the mixed boundary points. For each case, a mesh
refinement study is conducted, and finally the mesh structure on which finer mesh refinement
does not have a significant effect on the results is chosen and used for simulations. In order to
validate the procedure, a simulation is performed at Ri = 100, for Gr = 106. The results of this
simulation are compared with those obtained using the finite volume method (FVM) [3].
Stream function contours for this simulation are shown in fig. 2. Clearly, there is an excellent
agreement between the results generated by FEMLAB and the FVM code. Further, the
Nusselt numbers are differed by less than 0.2% (9.014 using FEMLAB and 9.03 using FVM).

(a) (b)
Figure 2. Stream function contours of identical magnitude for Gr = 106, Ri = 100: (a)
solution obtained using FVM [3]; (b) solution obtained using FEMLAB (present study)

4. RESULTS

In the present study, the configurations of the ventilated room, the inlet and outlet are kept
constant. Both Prandtl number and Reynolds number are also held fixed. Main attention is
then focused on the effects of the heat source sizes and the non-dimensional buoyancy
parameter, Gr or Ri, on the indoor air mixed convection. The influence of Gr and ε on flow
and thermal field is shown in figs. 3 and 4. The numerical computations are performed
considering the following ranges of parameter as shown in tab. 1.
 Table 1. Calculated ranges of governing and geometric parameters
Gr 103 104 105 106
Ri 0.1 1 10 100
Re 100
Pr 0.71
ε 0.125 0.25 0.5
4.1. Fluid flow characteristic

In the case of ε = 0.5, for Gr = 103, a small recirculation of low speed is formed at the
vicinity of the heat source and another vortex of relatively large recirculation zone is formed
near the right side wall. Since Ri = 0.1, the transient natural convection begins. As Re is
invariant, with increasing Gr, the induced forced flow almost covers the heated strip due to
the expansion of the recirculating zone, which indicates that the heat is carried out merely by
convection. Specially, at Gr = 104 and Ri = 1, the buoyancy effect negotiates with the forced
convection. For Ri ≥ 1, forced convection is overwhelmed by the natural convection. The
circulating cell of low speed is evolved into a high speed vortex at ε = 0.125 and low Gr,.
With the increase of Gr, the pocket of fluid close to the heat source is vanished and the right
side vortex becomes stronger marking to the better convective heat transfer.
ε = 0.5
ε = 0.25
ε = 0.125

Gr = 103 Gr = 104 Gr = 105 Gr = 106

Figure 3. Streamline plots for different Grashof number and heat source size
At Gr = 103, the small recirculation cell near the heated wall spreads out with the
decrease of ε, which is the indication of the evolving of the diffusive heat transfer to the
convection heat transfer. For Gr = 104, the buoyancy dominated natural convection tends to
be strong. The small recirculation near the warm wall is disappeared while the large
recirculation, located at the middle of the right side wall, grows larger with higher speed. This
evolution of the circulating cell forces the induced flow to pass throughout the heat source.
The growth of the circulating cell is higher for lower heat source size. Thus heat transfer rate
increases with the decrease of heat source size.

4.2. Thermal field characteristics

The effect of Grashof number and ε on isotherms is shown in fig. 4. For Gr = 103 and
ε = 0.125, the strata of isotherms are formed which points towards the dominancy of the
conduction heat transfer. As ε increases to 0.5, there is more heat transfer region, but near this
region, heat is conveyed solely by conduction. For Gr = 104, thermal field is similar to that of
Gr = 103, for all values of ε. When ε decreases from 0.5 to 0.125 for higher value of Gr,
nonlinearity of the isotherms are observed within the enclosure. Plume formation is more
rigorous indicating better convective heat transfer. But isotherms close to the heat source are
concentrated which marks to the major diffusive heat transfer.
At ε = 0.5, isotherms are compressed by the slight plume with increasing Gr. This
thermal scenario implies the supremacy of convective heat transport phenomenon. For ε =
0.125, deep plume appears at Gr = 106. Thereby, convective heat removal is higher than that
of ε = 0.5. Plume propagates throughout the heat source resulting better buoyancy dominant
heat transfer among the three values of ε.
ε = 0.5
ε = 0.25
ε = 0.125

Gr = 103 Gr = 104 Gr = 105 Gr = 106

Figure 4. Isotherm plots for different Grashof number and heat source size

4.3. Effect of Grashof number and heat source size on heat transfer

Variation of maximum non-dimensional temperature and average Nusselt number with

Grashof number for different values of heat source size are shown in figs. 5(a) and 5(b). For
all values of ε, the average Nusselt number increases with increasing Gr. It is observed that
 Nu is higher for lower value of heat source length (ε = 0.125) within 103 ≤ Gr ≤ 106 due to the
stronger convection heat transfer. For 104 ≤ Gr ≤ 3 × 105, a critical heat transfer scenario is
obtained. In this range of Gr, moderate heat transfer is achieved for ε = 0.5 whereas lower
heat transfer for ε = 0.25. At Gr = 106, the heat transfer rate is same both for ε = 0.125 and
0.25.
An increase in ε increases the total heat transfer, which in turn increases the
temperature of the heat source. This is why, θmax increases with increasing ε for any particular
Gr. An increase in Gr leads to a increase in Ri and a decrease in θmax for the same ε because
natural convection aids significantly in the heat removal process in addition to the forced
convection. The variation of average Nusselt number and θmax is insignificant for Gr ≤ 105 at
a fixed Re, because the effect of the natural convection starts and tends to be equal to the
forced convection for Ri ≤ 1.
0.50 12
0.45 ε = 0.5 ε = 0.5
ε = 0.25 10
0.40 ε = 0.25
0.35 ε = 0.125
8 ε = 0.125
θmax

Nu
0.30
0.25 6

0.20
4
0.15
0.10 2
1000 10000 Gr 100000 1000000 1000 10000 Gr 100000 1000000
(a) (b)

Figure 5. (a) Maximum temperature variation and (b) Average Nusselt number
distribution with Grashof number for different heat source size

5. CONCLUSION:

A numerical investigation on mixed convection in a ventilated enclosure has been

performed by using finite element method. The results show that the heat transfer rate
increases with the decrease of heat source size and increase of Grashof number. The
maximum non-dimensional temperature also decreases as Gr or ε increases keeping any of
these parameters constant. Thus better thermal performance can be achieved at ε = 0.125 for
any Grashof number and ε = 0.25 for Gr = 106 when Reynolds number is kept invariant.

REFERENCES

[1] Collett, C., Ross, J., Sterling, E., Quality Assurance Strategies for Investigating IAQ
Problems, ASHRAE J., 36 (1994), pp. 42-91.
[2] Wargocki, P., Wyon, D.P., Baik, Y.K., Perceived Air Quality, Sick Building Syndrome
(SBS) Symptoms and Productivity in an Office with Two Different Pollution Loads,
Indoor Air, 9 (1999), pp. 165-179.
[3] Deng, Q-H., Tang, G-F., Numerical Visualization of Mass and Heat Transport for Mixed
Convective Heat Transfer by Streamline and Heatline, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 45
(2002), pp. 2387-1396.
[4] Deng, Q-H., Zhou, J., Mei, C., Shen, Y-M., Fluid, Heat and Contaminant Transport
Structures of Laminar Double-Diffusive Mixed Convection in a Two-dimensional
Ventilated Enclosure, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 47 (2004), pp. 5257-5269.
[5] FEMLAB 3.0a, COMSOL Inc., Burlington, MA, 2006. http://www.comsol.com.

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