Effect of Sinusoidal Heating on Natural Convection Coupled to Thermal Radiation in a Square Cavity Subjected to Cross Temperature Gradients

Abstract

Coupled natural convection and surface radiation within a square cavity, filled with air and submitted to discrete heating and cooling from all its walls, is studied numerically. The thermally active elements are centrally located on the walls of the cavity. Two heating modes, called SB and SV , are considered. They correspond to bottom and vertical left elements sinusoidally heated in time, respectively, while the top and vertical right ones are constantly cooled. The remaining por tions of all the walls are considered adiabatic . The parameters governing the problem are the amplitude and the period of the temporally sinusoidal temperature, the emissivity of the walls , the relative lengths of the active elements and the Rayleigh number . The effect of such parameters on flow and thermal fields and the resulting heat transfer is examined. It is shown that, during a flow cycle, the flow structure can present complex behavior, depending on the emi s sivity and the amplitude and period of the exciting temperature. The rate of heat transfer is generally enhanced in the case of sinusoidal heating. Also, the reso nance phenomenon existence, characterized by maximum fluctuations in flow intensity and heat transfer, is proved in this study.