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.
Rights
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DOI
10.25777/pmar-bx35
Recommended Citation
Huang, Jim G..
"Combined Forced and Free Convection in the Trombe Wall Channel"
(1984). Thesis, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/pmar-bx35
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/mae_etds/534