Date of Award

Summer 1984

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Program/Concentration

Mechanical Engineering

Committee Director

Sushil K. Chaturvedi

Committee Member

Robert L. Ash

Committee Member

A. Sidney Roberts

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E56H48

Abstract

A vertical channel connected by horizontal exit and entrance segments is simulated and represents a flow passage for a Trombe wall solar collector. The two-dimensional combined forced and free convection mode is investigated for the laminar regime. The vertical walls of the channel are maintained at a constant but different temperature while horizontal walls are insulated. A finite difference method using up-wind differencing for the non-linear convective terms and central differencing for the second order derivatives is employed to solve the governing differential equations for mass, momentum, and energy balances. The solution is obtained for stream function, vorticity, and temperature as the dependent variables by an iterative technique known as successive substitution with overrelaxation. Results are obtained for various values of Reynolds number ranging from 100 to 2000, Grashof number from 106 to 107, Prandtl number from 0.0072 to 0.733 and aspect ratio of 5 and 12. Iso-streamline and isotherm contours are plotted for the above parametric cases to understand the flow and heat transfer characteristics in the channel. The results indicate that Gr/Re2 is an important parameter for characterizing tile effect of buoyancy in mixed convection. Both local and overall heat transfer coefficients are computed as a function of Reynolds number, Grashof number, Prandtl number and aspect ratio. For the limiting case of Reynolds number approaching unity, the calculated heat transfer coefficient is in reasonable agreement with results available in the literature.

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DOI

10.25777/pmar-bx35

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