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Description

Rayleigh-Benard convection, which consists of a scenario where fluid is heated from below, is of great importance in industrial applications such as food processing and nuclear plant operations. In this study, we propose a passive method of heat transfer enhancement in a rectangular Rayleigh-Benard convection cell by inserting a hexagonal honeycomb prism mixer. This mixer is to be used to protect the coherent structures (thermal plumes) that arise from the heated bottom wall so that they can reach the top cold wall without energy dissipation, thereby enhancing heat transfer. First, the model is verified against an experiment with an aspect ratio of 1.72, and the results of Nusselt vs Rayleigh Numbers were observed to be within 3% of each other. We then proceeded to compare the Nusselt number ratios (Nu/Nu0) of various prism heights and it was found that the height of 0.8H, where H is the height of the cell, yielded the greatest heat transfer ratio (1.11). An enhancement was recognized in several cases and the research seeks to study the effect of different Prandtl numbers in order to develop a heat transfer correlation of the form Nu=f(Ra,Pr).

Publication Date

4-1-2025

Keywords

Rayleigh-Benard Convection, Heat Transfer, Fluid Flow, Thermal Management

Enhanced Heat Transfer in Rayleigh-Bénard Convection via Hexagonal Honeycomb Prism Mixer: A Numerical Study

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