Numerical Simulation of Combined Natural Convection and Radiation Inside a Square Enclosure with a Horizontal Partition

In the present research work, the results of numerical investigation for combined natural convection and radiation inside a differentially heated square cavity consisting of horizontal partition are studied. The left wall of the cavity is considered as hot, right wall as the cold wall and the top and bottom walls are considered to be adiabatic. Also, the partition is considered to be adiabatic. The study is done for Rayleigh number 103–106. Air is taken as the working fluid having a Prandtl number of 0.71. The governing equations of fluid flow and heat transfer are solved using finite volume-based method. Discrete ordinate is used as the radiation model. The thickness of the partition for the analysis is considered to be one twentieth of the length of the cavity. The temperature and streamline contours along with the values of convective and radiative Nusselt number shows a significant effect of both convection and radiation in the heat transfer phenomenon. It has been observed from the results of present study that as the length of partition is increased, the NuT also increases as can be seen as when l varied from L/4 to L the NuT increases to 75% and 16% for Ra 103 and 105, respectively. It is also established that when the Ra increases from 103 to 106 the NuT increases to 447% for case 1b.