Patterns of Natural Convection in an Irregular Arc-Shaped Enclosure.

The current article deals with laminar natural convection in an irregular arc-shaped enclosure with a heated base and cooled upper top. The domain is filled with a liquid with Prandtl number of 4.0. This two-dimensional study focuses attention to understand changes in flow and temperature field development due to variation in aspect ratio from 0.1 to 0.4 for each case of Grashof number varies from 104 to 107. The paper also addresses the effect of orientation by placing the enclosure at an inclined position with angles of 45° and 90°. The flow behavior and thermal characteristics have been investigated through streamlines and isotherms, respectively. Complete domain has been chosen for analysis. Asymmetric solutions are also observed for some of the cases. These results are confirmed by the development of the corresponding convection loops and also by the variation of local Nusselt number. Finally, the paper summarizes the effects of different parameters on the rate of heat transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]