Effect of mutually orthogonal heated plates on buoyancy convection flow of micropolar fluid in a cavity

Abstract

Purpose

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the natural convection of micropolar fluid in a square cavity with two orthogonal heaters placed inside. The study of natural convection in a two-dimensional enclosure determines the effect of non-uniform heated plate on certain micropolar fluid flows which are found in many engineering applications. Therefore, because of its practical interest in the engineering fields such as building design, cooling of electronic components, melting and solidification process, solar energy systems, solar collectors, liquid crystals, animal blood, colloidal fluids and polymeric fluids, the topic needs to be further explored.

Design/methodology/approach

The dimensionless governing equations have been solved by finite volume method of the second-order central difference and upwind scheme.

Findings

The effects of the Rayleigh number, nonuniformity parameter and vortex viscosity parameter on fluid flow and heat transfer have been analyzed. The rate of heat transfer increases with an increase in the aspect ratio of the heated plates for all the values of Rayleigh number and vortex viscosity parameter. The heat transfer rate is reduced with an increase in the vortex viscosity parameter. It is predicted that the non-uniform of the baffle gives better heat transfer than uniform heating.

Originality/value

The present numerical results were tested against the experimental work. The present results have an excellent agreement with the results obtained by the previous experimental work.

Citation

Muthtamilselvan, M., Periyadurai, K. and Doh, D.H. (2018), "Effect of mutually orthogonal heated plates on buoyancy convection flow of micropolar fluid in a cavity", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 28 No. 9, pp. 2231-2251. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-03-2018-0118