Mixed convection with viscous dissipation and pressure work in a lid-driven square enclosure (Q840861)

The authors study combined forced and free flow in a square enclosure with vertical sides kept at unequal uniform temperatures with the top lid kept in uniform motion. The steady state equations for mass, momentum and energy balance are simplified under the Oberbeck-Boussinesq approximation. The equations are solved by a Galerkin finite element method for the unstructured meshes with triangular elements. A test of mesh independence was carried out with reference to the case of absence of viscous dissipation and pressure work. A comparison has been made between three different energy balance models: (A) Enthalpy formulation (pressure work and viscous dissipation are included), (B) internal energy formulation (viscous dissipation is included); both pressure work and viscous dissipation are neglected. It is shown that, in the absence of a lid motion, the three models produce almost identical results. However, when the forced flow induced by the lid motion becomes sufficiently large, the pressure work and viscous dissipation are significant and the model (B) with the internal energy formulation leads to reasonable predictions.