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CHAPTER 3

MATHEMATICAL MODELLING AND CFD ANALYSIS

In this chapter air cavity is modeled using Gambit software 2.3.16.The thermal analysis
of same is done in fluent software 12.0.16.

3.1 Thermal aspects of an air cavity

In the present work 2-dimensional air cavity is considered in which top and
bottom wall are maintained at different temperature while other two walls are kept
adiabatic. When temperature of bottom plate exceeds that of the top plate, density
decrease in the direction of gravitational force The geometry of bottom heating is shown
in fig. ( )


Fig 3.1: Geometry of an air cavity

Convection appears when temperature gradient is large enough to cause small
volume of fluid to move towards colder region of higher density. If buoyancy force cause
by difference of density is large enough so that small volume of fluid moves upwards so
that temperature cannot drop and convective flow appears. It is also possible that when
buoyancy force is not enough, then temperature of small volume is able to drop before it
can move up too much; as a result fluid remains stable.

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Fig 3.2: Formation of convection cells for bottom heating
The condition of bottom heating is known as RayleighBenard problem.The small
circulating cells are known as RayleighBenard cells shown as in fig. (3.2)
In case of top heating the temperature of top plate exceeds the temperature of
bottom plate.The density no longer decreases in the direction of gravitational force.
Hence there is no fluid motion and this condition is thermally stable. The heat transfer in
bottom heating is due to conduction.

3.2 Mathematical modeling
The fig.(3.3) shows geometric representation an air cavity of length L and width
W is considered as mentioned in reference [ ].The geometry consists of two adiabatic
side walls and two isothermal walls where upper wall is at lower temperature Tc and
bottom wall at higher temperature T
H
for bottom heating and vice-versa for top heating.
The air cavity is tilted at various inclinations from 0
0
to 90
0
.The gravity vector is directed
in negative y coordinate direction.

Fig 3.3: Geometric representation of an air cavity with tilt angle

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3.3 Governing equation

The governing equations are Navier-Stokes equation for fluid flow and thermal energy
diffusion equation. As a result of assumed 2-D geometry only vertical and horizontal
velocity components are considered. The form of Navier-Stokes equations for present
case is as follows:

(3.1)

(3.2)


The thermal diffusion equation for the present case is as follows:

(3.3)

If the fluid remain stable (heat transfer is due to conduction) the temperature changes
linearly in accordance with the height (from the bottom to top)

( )

(3.4)

More important is how the temperature changes when convection appears so
that relation is not linear anymore. The function which describes temperature deviation
from linear is (x, y, t):

( ) ( )

(3.5)

This function satisfies the equation:

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(3.6)

Fluid convection is the result of fluid density variation which depends directly on the
temperature. The higher the temperature, the density decreases so a buoyant force appears
causing the convection phenomena. The fluid density variation can be described by
Taylors series expansion:


()

) (3.7)

where
0
is density at T
H.

It can be presented in another form by introducing thermal expansion coefficient.

(3.8)

The expression (T T
w
) in eq. (3.5) is used, thus the equation of density is as follows:

()

( )

(3.9)


According to Boussinesq approximation the density variation is neglected in all terms
except in body force in Navier-Stokes equation. The v
y
in eq. (3.1) may now written by
applying this approximation in the following form:

( )

(3.10)




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3.3 Modeling in Gambit
In the present work preprocessing is done using Gambit Software 2.3.16.In this 2-D air
cavity is modeled at various inclinations. As same procedure is adopted for different
inclinations hence it is convenient to show figure for any particular inclination
Modeling of flow topology is done in Gambit software which is based on hierarchical
order. This means first all the vertices of flow region are generated then curves are drawn
through those points and finally face is created within those curves. The air cavity of
dimension 1 m 0.035 m is considered as mentioned in reference[ ] is modeled using
gambit software to create the flow region is shown in fig.(3.4 ).The same methodology is
adoptd for aspect ratios 14 and 7.


Fig 3.4: 2-D representation of an air cavity with tilt angle 60
0
in Gambit


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After creating the topology it is required to discrete the flow region. This is called
Meshing of the flow region. To create the mesh, hierarchical logic is also followed.
First, all the curves defining the flow area have been discretized and then finally the flow
region has been meshed. There are two types of grid either structured or unstructured
grid. Generally structured grid is preferred over unstructured grid as less no of cells are
generated using structured grid which reduces the computational time and results are
more accurate. The uniform grid size of dimension 20016 is use to mesh the geometry
using logic as MAP and element type as QUAD. The meshing is shown in fig.
(3.5).The same meshing strategy is adopted for aspect ratios 14 and 7



Fig 3.5: Meshing of an air cavity with tilt angle 60
0
in Gambit

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After completing the meshing process Face Zone and Cell Zone definition have been
completed. In this problem following Face Zones is selected as Wall Cell-Zone is
selected as Fluid. The boundary condition is shown in fig.(3.6).




Fig 3.6: Boundary types in Gambit with tilt angle 60
0

After completion of meshing and zone definition in Gambit, the work has been
saved and exported as a mesh file with .msh extension to use in Fluent software.

3.4 CFD analysis in Fluent.

In Fluent *.msh file is read and shown in fig.(3.7)
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Fig 3.7: Mesh in Fluent for tilt angle 60
0


Now checking is perform to see whether there is any negative cell volume. If
there is negative cell volume then mesh is incorrect. The fig. of grid check is shown in
fig. (3.8).

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Fig 3.8: Grid check in Fluent for tilt angle 60
0

The fluid in cavity is air and properties of air are evaluated at mean temperature
of (35
0
c) and (30
0
c) which is found to be 32.5
0
c.The analysis is carried out using
boussinesq approximation which assumes that density is constant in all governing
equation except for buoyancy term in momentum equation.
Table 3.1: Properties of an air cavity at 305.5 K
Property Units Method Values
Temperature K Constant 305.5
Density Kg/m
3
Boussinesq 1.15575
Specific heat J/kg-k Constant 1005
Thermal
conductivity
W/m-k Constant 0.02634
Viscosity Kg/m-s Constant 1.87e-05
Thermal
expansion
1/K Constant 0.003273
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The energy is On. The dimensionless number known as Rayleigh number which
is based on dimension of domain and assuming constant properties. The Rayleigh number
is use to distinguish laminar and turbulent flow.

The Rayleigh number for an air cavity is 1.87 10
4
.Therefore flow is considered as
laminar flow.

Table 3.2: Boundary condition
Boundary Type Bottom heating Top heating
Top wall Isothermal Temperature=303K Temperature=308K
Bottom wall Isothermal Temperature=308K Temperature=303K
Right wall Adiabatic Heat flux=0 W/m
2
Heat flux=0 W/m
2

Left wall Adiabatic Heat flux=0 W/m
2
Heat flux=0 W/m
2


Relaxation factor are taken as default values

Table 3.3: Relaxation factors
Pressure Density Body force Momentum Energy
0.3 1 1 0.7 1

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The pressure based solver is used and the pressure velocity coupling is taken as Semi
Implicit Method for Pressure Linked Equation SIMPLE algorithm is used. Standard is
used for pressure discretization and second order upwind is used for momentum and
energy discretization.The solution initialization is shown in fig.(3.9)



Fig 3.9: Solution initialization in fluent for tilt angle 60
0

Convergence criterion is set as 10
-4
for continuity equation, x-momentum and y-
momentum equation and 10
-6
for energy equation.The convergence is shown in fig.(3.10)
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Fig 3.10: Convergence of an air cavity in Fluent with tilt angle 60
0

After calculations flow variable such as temperature, velocity, pressure etc are calculated
throughout the computational domain. The dimensionless number i.e. nusselt number is
plotted at various inclinations.