TITLE:
Experimental and numerical study of buoyancy driven flow within a bottom heated vertical concentric cylindrical enclosure
AUTHORS:
Asif Hussain Malik, Shahab Khushnood, Ajmal Shah
KEYWORDS:
Experimental; Numerical Study; Buoyancy Driven Flow; Cylindrical Enclosure; Materials; Temperature
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Science,
Vol.5 No.7,
July
4,
2013
ABSTRACT: The study of buoyancy driven flow within bottom-heated vertical concentric cylindrical enclosure was important with respect to the processes in chemical and nuclear industries. In this research paper, experimental and numerical study of the axial temperature gradient and the heat transfer mechanism within the enclosure were performed. The numerical simulations were validated by comparing the numerical results with experimentally measured axial temperature. The numerical results of the streamlines within the enclosure depicted the real picture of the buoyancy effects. Eighteen different experiments were performed by using inner cylinder of different materials and outer cylinder of different diameters within the bottom disc temperature range of 353 - 433 K. The CFD simulations were performed to study the buoyancy effects within the enclosure. At the bottom disc with temperature up to 393 K, the streamlines within the inner cylinder were almost the same for both con- figurations being independent of outer cylinder diameter, while at 433 K streamlines within the inner cylinders varied. With larger diameter outer cylinder configuration, the buoyancy effects in the outer annulus were stronger as compared to smaller one.