Three-dimensional natural convection in an enclosure with a sphere at different vertical locations

Numerical calculations are carried out for the three-dimensional natural convection induced by a temperature difference between a cold outer cubic enclosure and a hot inner sphere. The immersed-boundary method (IBM) to model a sphere based on the finite volume method is used to study a three-dimensional natural convection for different Rayleigh numbers varying in the range of 10(3)-10(6). This study investigates the effect of the inner sphere location on the heat transfer and fluid flow. The flow and thermal fields eventually reach the steady state for all Rayleigh numbers regardless of the sphere location. For Rayleigh numbers of 10(5) and 10(6), the variation of local Nusselt number of the sphere along the circumferential direction is large, showing the strong three dimensionality of the natural convection in the enclosure unlike to the cases of lower Rayleigh numbers of 10(3) and 10(4). For the highest Rayleigh number, the local peaks of the Nusselt number on the top wall of the enclosure shows the sinusoidal distribution along the circumferential direction. The flow and thermal fields, and the local and surface-averaged Nusselt numbers on the sphere and the enclosure are highlighted in detail. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.