Effect of Various Thermal Boundary Conditions on Natural Convection in a Trapezoidal Cavity with Linearly Heated Side Wall(s)

Abstract

A penalty finite-element-based study has been carried out for natural-convection flow in a trapezoidal cavity with uniformly heated bottom wall and linearly heated and/or cooled vertical wall(s) in the presence of an insulated top wall. For linearly heated side walls, symmetry in flow patterns is observed, whereas secondary circulation is observed for the linearly heated left wall and cooled right wall. The local Nusselt number indicates reversal of heat flow at the side walls or the left wall. The average Nusselt number versus Rayleigh number illustrates that the overall heat transfer rate at the bottom wall is larger for the linearly heated left wall and cooled right wall.