Mixed Convection Flow in a Rectangular Ventilated Cavity with a Heat Conducting Solid Circular Cylinder at the Center

A numerical investigation has been carried out for mixed convection flow in a rectangularventilated cavity with a heat conducting solid circular cylinder at the center. Forced convection flowconditions were imposed by providing an inlet at the bottom of the left wall and an outlet vent at the topto the other sidewall. In this paper, the effect of cavity aspect ratio as well as the mixed convectionparameter on the flow and heat transfer characteristics were analyzed. Finite element method was used tocarry out the investigation. Computations were done for mixed convective flow with the Richardsonnumber Re ranging from 0.0 to 5.0, cavity aspect ratio from 0.5 to 2.0 and Reynolds number, Re of 100. The basic nature of the resulting interaction between the forced external air stream and the buoyancydrivenflow by the heat source was explained by the patterns of the streamlines and isotherms. Thecomputational results indicated that the flow and thermal fields as well as average Nusselt number at thehot wall, average temperature of the fluid and the temperature at the cylinder center strongly dependedon the cavity aspect ratio and mixed convection parameter Ri.