Surface radiation and unsteady natural convection induced by a heated elliptic cylinder inside a symetrically cooled cavity

Abstract

In this paper, the finite volume method is combined with the discrete ordinate method to study numerically the natural convection coupled to surface radiation in a square cavity with an elliptic inner cylinder maintained at a high temperature TH. The cavity is filled with air and cooled symmetrically by its vertical sidewalls maintained at a cold temperature TC. The hydrodynamic and thermal behaviors of the fluid and the convective and radiative heat transfer are investigated for the Rayleigh number ranging from 103 to 107 and different surface emissivities. The numerical work is carried out using an in-house CFD code written in FORTRAN. It is found that the surface radiation accentuates the convective and total heat transfer in the cavity.