Effect of Rotation on Natural Convection in Differentially Heated Rotating Enclosure by Numerical Simulation

Natural convection heat transfer in a two dimensional unsteady rotating differentially heated enclosure is studied numerically in this paper. The enclosure is filled with air and executes a steady counterclockwise rotation about the centre of the enclosure. A finite volume code on a staggered grid arrangement with TDMA algorithm is developed and employed to solve the governing equations subject to Boussinesq approximation. The numerical investigation is carried out for fixed Prandtl number equal to 0.71, Rayleigh number equal to1.1 x 10(5) while Taylors number vary from5.2 x 10(4) to 3.3 x 10(5)and Rotational Rayleigh number from 4.9 x 10(2) to 3.1 x 10(3).Results reveal that there are considerable change in heat transfer rates beyond 15 rpm. The effect of rotation on the Nusselt number for a given Rayleigh number is shown in the present work which is not normally indicated and discussed in the available literature