LAUSR

Abstract This paper deals with numerical investigation of a natural convective flow in a horizontal annular space between a heated square inner cylinder and a cold elliptical outer cylinder with a Newtonian fluid. Uniform temperatures are imposed along walls of the enclosure. The governing equations of the problem were solved numerically by the commercial code Fluent, based on the finite volume method and the Boussinesq approximation. The effects of Geometry Ratio GR and Rayleigh numbers on fluid flow and heat transfer performance are investigated. The Rayleigh number is varied from 103 to 106. Throughout the study the relevant results are presented in terms of isotherms, and streamlines. From the results, we found that the increase in the Geometry Ratio B leads to an increase of the heat transfer coefficient. The heat transfer rate in the annulus is translated in terms of the average Nusselt numbers along the enclosure’s sides. Tecplot 7 program was used to plot the curves which cleared these relations and isotherms and streamlines which illustrate the behavior of air through the channel and its variation with other parameters. The results for the streamlines, isotherms, local and average Nusselt numbers average Nusselt numbers are compared with previous works and show good agreement.