IRREVERSIBILITY DISTRIBUTION FOR A PURE CONVECTION CASE OF THE SMITH-HUTTON PROBLEM

The irreversibility distributions for a pure convection heat transfer case of the Smith-Hutton problem have been calculated and displayed gr aphically. The steady state, two-dimensional test problem of Smith-Hut ton involves steep variations in temperature and strong streamline cur vature in a rectangular flow domain that are encountered in many pract ical convection-diffusion problems. Combination of the first and secon d laws of thermodynamics has been utilized to calculate the irreversib ility distribution ratio and the Bejan number with various degrees of steepness parameter in the temperature field. The shapes of the temper ature and velocity profiles are the ones that maximize or minimize the total entropy generation rate. This shows the important relationship between the empirical nature of convection treatment and the irreversi bility distribution determined by the thermodynamic analysis. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.