CONVECTIVE HEAT-TRANSFER IN AN ANNULAR FLUID LAYER WITH CENTRIFUGAL FORCE-FIELD

The present study deals with two-dimensional convective motion due to the effect of a centrifugal force held on a fluid contained between tw o horizontal concentric cylinders, for the particular case of an adiab atic inner boundary (zero heat flux) and a constant heat flux imposed on the outer boundary. The normal terrestrial gravity is considered ne gligible. Governing equations for a two-dimensional flow field are sol ved using analytical and numerical techniques. Based on a concentric f low approximation, the analytical solution is obtained in terms of the Rayleigh number and the radius ratio. The numerical solution is based on a finite difference method. Results indicate that the flow field a lways consists of two symmetrical cells at incipient convection even a t radius ratios near unity. A good agreement is found between the anal ytical and numerical solutions at finite amplitude convection.