Numerical Analysis of Conjugate Natural Convection from a Heat Generating Element Placed Centrally in a Vertical Channel

ABSTRACT

A locally divergence free, hybrid finite element-finite volume technique is used for the numerical prediction of a laminar incompressible flow and heat transfer problem. In the hybrid finite element-finite volume technique, the velocity components are evaluated using standard Galerkin finite element method and cell centered finite volume method for the evaluation of pressure is employed in the analysis of the present conjugate heat transfer problem. The geometry considered here consists of a vertical passage formed between two thermally insulated parallel plates wherein a heat source is placed centrally. A restriced domain approach with pressure boundary condition is used to evaluate the velocity distributions of inlet and exit. Good agreement between numerical and experiment results indicates the efficacy of the proposed numerical scheme.

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