Journal of Theoretical
and Applied Mechanics

52, 3, pp. 827-837, Warsaw 2014

Effect of radial fins on natural convection between horizontal circular and square cylinders

Iman Jafari, Hossein Mahdavy-Moghadam, Mohammad Taeibi-Rahni, Morteza Dayyan, Seyyed Mostafa Seyyedi

In this paper, the effects of the number and arrangement of radial fins on laminar natural convection between horizontal circular and square cylinders has been investigated numerically with the lattice Boltzmann method. The Rayleigh number is varied from $ {\rm Ra}=10^3-10^6)$, the number of fins $ (N=2-8)$ and the Prandtl number $ (\Pr=0.7)$. The local Nusselt number profiles over the outer and inner cylinders and the average Nusselt number over the top, bottom and side walls of the outer cold square cylinder are obtained. The temperature and streamline contours are also depicted to investigate the heat and fluid flow behavior inside the computational domain.
Keywords: radial fins; natural convection; lattice Boltzmann method; horizontal annulus