Computational and experimental studies of convective fluid motion and heat transfer in inclined non-rectangular enclosures

Computational and experimental studies of the fluid motion and heat transfer characteristics of an incompressible fluid contained in a non-rectangular inclined enclosure are described in this paper. The enclosure has two 45° inclined side walls one of which was heated and the other cooled. The remaining two sides of the enclosure are parallel and insulated. The enclosure was rotated about the long axis in steps of 30° through 360°. Experiments were performed to study the effects of Rayleigh number, aspect ratios and orientation of the enclosure. The computational method uses a mesh transformation technique coupled with the introduction of ‘false transient’ parameters for the steady state solution of the problem. The experimental method uses smoke for flow visualization studies. With aspect ratios of 3 and 6, the results indicate that the heat transfer and fluid motion within the enclosure is a strong function of both the Rayleigh number and the cavity orientation angle. A minimum and a maximum mean Nusselt number occurred as the angle of inclination was increased from 0 to 360°. A transition in the mode of circulation occurred at the angle corresponding to the minimum or maximum rate of heat transfer. Stream lines and isotherms are presented for the most representative cases