Heat transfer characteristics of internally heated liquid pools at high Rayleigh numbers

Detailed numerical analysis is presented for buoyancy driven flow of a Newt onian fluid contained in a square enclosure for high Rayleigh (Ra) numbers. Natural convection is due to internal heating sources, which are assumed t o be uniformly distributed within the enclosure. All walls of the cavity ar e maintained at constant temperature. Flow and heat transfer characteristic s are investigated for a Pa number range of 10(7) to 10(12) while Prandtl ( Pr) number is taken to be 7.0. Governing equations (in primitive variables) are discretised using control volume technique based on staggered grid for mulation. These equations are solved using SIMPLER algorithm of Patankar. F low and heat transfer characteristics, streamlines, isotherms and average w all Nusselt (Nu) number, are presented for whole range of Pa number conside red. Finally, present results for average wall Nu numbers are compared with experimental observations obtained from open literature. It is concluded t hat both results are in very good agreement, which confirmed the accuracy o f the scaling used for present investigation.