Laminar natural convection in right triangular enclosures

Abstract

In this study, natural convection in non-rectangular enclosures is analyzed numerically. Streamlines and isotherms are presented for different triangular enclosures with different boundary conditions and Rayleigh numbers. Mean Nusselt numbers on hot walls are also calculated in order to make comparisons between different cases. The solutions are obtained for different aspect ratios where boundary conditions represent the wintertime heating of an attic space. This made possible to investigate the effect of aspect ratio on natural convection. In this study, quarter circular enclosure, which is very similar to right triangles, is also examined. Consequently, we had the opportunity to analyze how shape changes affect the flow pattern. The results of the calculations are compared with the similar enclosures and boundary conditions.