Natural convection in a differentially heated square enclosure with a solid polygon

Area of Science:

• Heat Transfer
• Fluid Dynamics
• Computational Physics

Background:

• Natural convection heat transfer is crucial in various engineering applications.
• Understanding conjugate heat transfer with internal objects is essential for thermal management.
• Numerical simulations provide a powerful tool for analyzing complex thermal phenomena.

Purpose of the Study:

• To numerically analyze conjugate natural convection heat transfer.
• To investigate the influence of a conductive polygon object within a differentially heated square enclosure.
• To determine the effect of polygon type, size, position, thermal conductivity, and Rayleigh number on heat transfer.

Main Methods:

• Numerical simulation using COMSOL Multiphysics software.
• Solving dimensionless governing equations for natural convection.
• Parametric study varying polygon characteristics and flow conditions.

Main Results:

• A critical size for the solid polygon was identified, particularly at low thermal conductivities.
• Heat transfer rate initially increases with polygon size, reaching a maximum at the critical size.
• Beyond the critical size, the heat transfer rate decreases.

Conclusions:

• The size of the conductive polygon significantly impacts conjugate natural convection heat transfer.
• An optimal polygon size exists for maximizing heat transfer in this enclosure.
• The findings provide insights for designing enclosures with internal objects for efficient thermal control.