Prandtl and Richardson Number Effects on Mixed Convection in a Vented Enclosure on Application to the Cooling of the Fins

Abstract

In the present study, a numerical investigate the transport mechanism of laminar mixed convection in a vented enclosure. The walls of the cavity were kept adiabatic except the right vertical wall which was equipped with three fins dissipating the heat at a constant temperature. The equations of considered phenomenon were established and discretized by the finite difference method. The sweeping method line-by-line and the Thomas Algorithm (TDMA) were used for the resolution of the system of discretized equations. The results obtained showed that both the variations of the Prandtl and Richardson number have important effects on the flow structure and on the heat transfer.