Numerical Study on Natural Convection of Water Near Its Density Maximum in Horizontal Annulus

In this paper, numerical simulations for natural convection of water near its maximum-density in horizontal annulus with isothermal walls are performed with the finite volume method. The results show that there are different steady-state flow patterns for different control parameters in the range of calculation for concentric horizontal annulus. Furthermore, the effects of the non-dimensional parameters, which include the radius ratio and density inversion parameter, on the temperature and flow fields are discussed, and the variation of the average Nusselt number is analyzed at different conditions. It is found that density inversion of water has a great effect on natural convective heat transfer in horizontal annulus.