Natural Convection in Rectangular Cavities at Various Aspect Ratios and Inclinations With Isothermal Sidewalls and Constant Flux Heat Source on the Bottom Wall

Natural convection in rectangular cavities is studied numerically using a finite volume based computational procedure. In many applications, especially for cooling of electronic components, a natural convection configuration is encountered where the heat source is at the bottom surface and the sidewalls are at colder temperature while the top wall can be considered adiabatic. The present study is based on such a configuration where a constant flux heat source is symmetrically embedded at the bottom wall. The non-heated parts of the bottom wall are considered adiabatic. The study includes computations for cavities at various aspect ratios, ranging from 0.5 to 2, and inclination angles of the cavity from 0° to 30°. The Grashof number is varied from 10³ to 10⁶. The effects of aspect ratio and inclination angles on the heat transfer process are analysed. Results are presented in the form of streamline and isotherm plots as well as the variation of the average Nusselt number and maximum temperature at the heat source surface under different conditions.