NUMERICAL STUDY OF TURBULENT NATURAL CONVECTION IN AN INNOVATIVE AIR COOLING SYSTEM

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Abstract
The process of buoyancy-induced turbulent convection in an asymmetrically heated vertical channel is studied numerically to simulate the situation of flow development and heat transfer in an innovative air cooling system. An upgraded two-equation closure model is employed to describe the turbulent motion, and the problem is formulated with proper account of the effects of property variations and surface radiation between the bounding watts. The governing system is solved by an implicit finite-difference method. Variable grid sizes are used in the numerical computation, and the velocity-pressure coupling is treated by a technique involving numerical iteration with underrelaxation. The accuracy of the present computational scheme is demonstrated by comparing the predicted results with available experimental data. Axial variations of watt temperatures and downstream evolution of local velocity and temperature fields are determined as functions of various controlling parameters of the system.