Heat transfer enhancement induced by wall inclination in turbulent thermal convection

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2015 Nov;92(5):053006. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.92.053006. Epub 2015 Nov 6.

Abstract

We present a series of numerical simulations of turbulent thermal convection of air in an intermediate range or Rayleigh numbers (10(6)≤Ra≤10(9)) with different configurations of a thermally active lower surface. The geometry of the lower surface is designed in such a way that it represents a simplified version of a mountain slope with different inclinations (i.e., "Λ"- and "V"-shaped geometry). We find that different wall inclinations significantly affect the local heat transfer by imposing local clustering of instantaneous thermal plumes along the inclination peaks. The present results reveal that significant enhancement of the integral heat transfer can be obtained (up to 32%) when compared to a standard Rayleigh-Bénard configuration with flat horizontal walls. This is achieved through combined effects of the enlargement of the heated surface and reorganization of the large-scale flow structures.