Conjugate natural convection in a square enclosure containing volumetric sources

Laminar natural convection flow in a square enclosure having thick conducti ng walls has been analysed numerically. Enclosing walls are considered to h ave finite conductive properties. Problem has been analysed using control v olume approach and employing ghost nodes at the solid fluid interface. Outs ides of the walls are kept at constant temperature. Square cavity is assume d to be filled with a Bousinessq fluid with a Prandtl number of 7.0 contain ing uniform volumetric sources. Rayleigh number is varied from 10(7) to 10( 12). For special cases, benchmark results compare very well with the result s from open literature. Isotherms, streamlines and wall Nusselt numbers are obtained and scrutinised. Results show a significant change in the buoyant flow parameters as compared to conventional non-conjugate investigations. Especially, it has been shown that walls having high thermal diffusivity ar e much better suited, if the cooling of the enclosed fluid is intended. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.