Simulation of Natural Convection Heat Transfer of Nitrogen in a Cylindrical Enclosure

Abstract

In this work we consider the numerical simulation of heat transfer by natural convection in a horizontal cylindrical cell, filled with nitrogen gas and heated by a tungsten filament situated on its axis. The gas temperature range is from 400K to the envelope of the lamp unto the 3000K near tungsten wire. These temperatures create large temperature gradients (up to 500K/mm) which produce complex patterns of currents circulating inside the cell. The physical principles governing this problem are modeled by the Navier-Stokes equations. These equations are solved numerically using the finite volume method. Numerical results show that the temperature gradients cause the generation of the thermal buoyancy force which induces a natural convection movement within the cell. The numerical results are in good agreement with those of an experimental study conducted by the Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) technique with the same geometric, dynamic and thermal parameters.