Numerical investigation of natural convection inside a wavy enclosure

In this paper, hydrodynamic and thermal behaviors of fluid inside a wavy walled enclosure are investigated. The enclosure consists of two wavy and two straight walls. The top and the bottom walls are wavy and kept isothermal. Two vertical straight walls (right and left) are considered adiabatic. The integral forms of the governing equations are solved numerically using Finite Volume method. Computational domains are divided into finite numbers of body fitted control volumes with collocated variable arrangement. Results are presented in the form of local and global Nusselt number distributions for a selected range of Grashof number (10(3)-10(7)). Streamlines and isothermal lines are also presented for four different values (0.0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15) of amplitude-wavelength ratios (= alpha/lambda) and for a fluid having Prandtl number 1.0. Throughout this study, aspect ratio (= delta/lambda) is kept equal to 0.40. Calculated results for Nusselt number are compared with the available references. (C) 2002 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.