Mixed convection in an enclosure with a heat-conducting body (Q1290907)

This paper deals with the combined free and forced convection in a square enclosures with a finite-size heat source and with square heat-conducting body located arbitrarily within the enclosures. This model can describe some practical systems, such as an air-cooled electronic equipment with heat components or an oven with heaters. The mathematical model consists of coupled equations for stream function, vorticity transport and energy, which are solved numerically by using the cubic spline collocation method. Numerical solutions are obtained over a wide range of Grashof (Gr) and Reynolds (Re) numbers, as well as for various physical parameters. It is shown that the average Nusselt number increases significantly as the Reynolds number Re increases at a fixed \(\text{Gr/Re}^2\). Similarly, a gradual increases in the heat transfer rate is found with increasing \(\text{Gr/Re}^2\) at constant values of Re. The authors also establish that the average Nusselt number increases if the heat-conducting solid body is placed farther from the heat source or from the cold air-stream passage. An unexpected result is obtained for the dependence of thermal transport on the body conductivity. For somewhat large solid body, an obvious enhancement in the heat transfer is observed if the thermal conductivity becomes lower.