The effect of protuberance on thermal convection in a square enclosure

This paper documents research that has been undertaken at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne Australia. In this paper, the analyses of heat transfer and free convective motion have been carried out numerically for a semi-cylindrically shaped protuberance in a square enclosure. The solution method is based on the finite element technique with the frontal solver. The numerical results are for a Prandtl Number 0.71 and for a Rayleigh Number up to 105. The change in direction of returning fluid near the cold wall effects the convective heat transfer process significantly. Moreover, increases in the protuberance affect the maximum velocities and their physical location in the domain resulting in dead zones near the bottom corners of the enclosures