Computation of Steady Laminar Natural Convective Heat Transfer from Localized Heat Sources in Enclosures

Abstract

Natural convective cooling of localized heat sources located on walls of a three dimensional rectangular enclosure is studied numerically in the present study. Heat sources are placed on an insulated side of the enclosure. The remaining faces of the enclosure are considered to be at a uniform temperature. Size of heat sources are considered to be relatively small compared to the dimensions of the enclosure. The physical problem considered is aimed to simulate cooling of heat producing surfaces in electronic systems. SIMPLEM method introduced by Acharya and Moukalled is used to solve the steady state three dimensional laminar natural convection heat transfer problem using a nonuniform nonstaggered grid arrangement. Formulation of the numerical problem is realized using primitive variables. Equations which are solved numerically are dimensionless forms of the three momentum equations in the x, y and z directions, the energy equation and the equation of continuity. Effects of aspect ratios Az (=H/W), Ay (=D/W), Grashof number, Prandtl number, and the different orientations of heat sources on the magnitude of heat transfer are investigated.