Souad Morsli, Mustapha Boussoufi, Amina Sabeur, Mohammed El Ganaoui and Rachid Bennacer
The use of natural ventilation by large openings to maintain thermal comfort conditions in the premises is a concept that is perfectly integrated into the traditional architecture…
Abstract
Purpose
The use of natural ventilation by large openings to maintain thermal comfort conditions in the premises is a concept that is perfectly integrated into the traditional architecture of countries in the Mediterranean region or in tropical climates. In a temperate climate where the architecture is not usually designed to respond to the use of natural ventilation is seasonal and is done at the initiative of the occupants by making changes in the design of their doors. The European interest in natural ventilation, as a passive building air-conditioning technology, is increasing and has been the subject of a research program commissioned by the European Community. In this work, the authors consider a part of a housing compound as a refreshing floor. This floor is maintained at a constant cold temperature, the one vertical wall at hot temperature and other surfaces are adiabatic. Various scenarios are considered for this work. Mixed convection for different boundary conditions and different configurations is carried out. In addition, an airflow is injected through a window and extracted on the opposite window. Classical conclusion and transitional value on Richardson number have been completed by the new thermal configuration with nonsymmetric thermal conditions. The complex 3D flow structure is more obvious when one of the two flows (ventilation or natural convection) dominates. However, the induced heat transfer is less sensitive to the added ventilation. In this study, the authors consider a part of a housing compound as a refreshing floor. This floor is maintained at a constant cold temperature, the one vertical wall at hot temperature and other surfaces are adiabatic.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative preliminary study of a 2D–3D flow. The authors examine the competition between the natural convective flow and the added airflow on the flow structure and indoor air quality. The numerical model shows a good agreement with that obtained by researchers analytically and experimentally. To deal with turbulence, the RNG k-ε model has been adopted in this study.
Findings
The transfer is more sensitive between the 2D and 3D cases for the present analyzed case.
Originality/value
The study of ventilation efficiency has shown the competition between the big and small structures and the induced discomfort.
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Diego Celentano, Marcela Cruchaga, Jorge Romero and Mohammed El Ganaoui
The purpose of this paper is to present a 2D numerical simulation of natural convection and phase‐change of succinonitrile in a horizontal Bridgman apparatus. Three different heat…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a 2D numerical simulation of natural convection and phase‐change of succinonitrile in a horizontal Bridgman apparatus. Three different heat transfer mechanisms are specifically studied: no growth, solidification and melting.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is carried out with a preexisting thermally coupled fixed‐mesh finite element formulation for generalized phase‐change problems.
Findings
In the three cases analyzed, the predicted steady‐state liquid‐solid interfaces are found to be highly curved due to the development of a primary shallow cell driven by the imposed furnace temperature gradient. In the no growth case, the heating and cooling jackets remain fixed and, therefore, a stagnant liquid‐solid interface is obtained. On the other hand, the phase transformation in the solidification and melting cases is, respectively, controlled by the forward and backward movement of the jackets. In these last two growth conditions, the permanent regime is characterized by a moving liquid‐solid interface that continuously shifts with the same velocity of the jackets. The numerical results satisfactorily approach the experimental measurements available in the literature.
Originality/value
The numerical simulation of the no growth, solidification and melting cases in a horizontal Bridgman apparatus using a finite element based formulation is the main contribution of this work. This investigation does not only provide consistent results with those previously computed via different numerical techniques for the no growth and solidification conditions but also reports on original numerical predictions for the melting problem. Moreover, all the obtained solid‐liquid interfaces are validated with experimental measurements existing in the literature.
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Youssef Azizi, Brahim Benhamou, Nicolas Galanis and Mohammed El‐Ganaoui
The objective of the present study is to investigate numerically the effects of thermal and buoyancy forces on both upward flow (UF) and downward flow (DF) of air in a vertical…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of the present study is to investigate numerically the effects of thermal and buoyancy forces on both upward flow (UF) and downward flow (DF) of air in a vertical parallel‐plates channel. The plates are wetted by a thin liquid water film and maintained at a constant temperature lower than that of the air entering the channel.
Design/methodology/approach
The solution of the elliptical PDE modeling the flow field is based on the finite volume method.
Findings
Results show that buoyancy forces have an important effect on heat and mass transfers. Cases with evaporation and condensation have been investigated for both UF and DF. It has been established that the heat transfer associated with these phase changes (i.e. latent heat transfer) may be more or less important compared with sensible heat transfer. The importance of these transfers depends on the temperature and humidity conditions. On the other hand, flow reversal has been predicted for an UF with a relatively high temperature difference between the incoming air and the walls.
Originality/value
Contrary to most studies in channel heat and mass transfer with phase change, the mathematical model considers the full elliptical Navier‐Stokes equations. This allows one to compute situations of flow reversal.
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Hong-Yan Liu, Ji-Huan He and Zheng-Biao Li
Academic and industrial researches on nanoscale flows and heat transfers are an area of increasing global interest, where fascinating phenomena are always observed, e.g. admirable…
Abstract
Purpose
Academic and industrial researches on nanoscale flows and heat transfers are an area of increasing global interest, where fascinating phenomena are always observed, e.g. admirable water or air permeation and remarkable thermal conductivity. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the phenomena by the fractional calculus.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper begins with the continuum assumption in conventional theories, and then the fractional Gauss’ divergence theorems are used to derive fractional differential equations in fractal media. Fractional derivatives are introduced heuristically by the variational iteration method, and fractal derivatives are explained geometrically. Some effective analytical approaches to fractional differential equations, e.g. the variational iteration method, the homotopy perturbation method and the fractional complex transform, are outlined and the main solution processes are given.
Findings
Heat conduction in silk cocoon and ground water flow are modeled by the local fractional calculus, the solutions can explain well experimental observations.
Originality/value
Particular attention is paid throughout the paper to giving an intuitive grasp for fractional calculus. Most cited references are within last five years, catching the most frontier of the research. Some ideas on this review paper are first appeared.
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Soufien Belhaj and Brahim Ben-Beya
This study aims to analyze entropy generation and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection of hybrid nanofluid in a square cavity, with a heated elliptical block placed at the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyze entropy generation and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) natural convection of hybrid nanofluid in a square cavity, with a heated elliptical block placed at the center, in presence of a periodic-variable magnetic field.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, simulations were performed with a FORTRAN home code. The numerical methodology used to solve Navier–Stokes, energy and entropy generation equations with corresponding boundary conditions, is essentially based on the finite volume method and full multigrid acceleration.
Findings
The cavity is filled with Ag–Tio2/Water hybrid nanofluid. The main objective of this investigation is to predict the effects of body’s size (6 cases), type of applied magnetic field (variable or uniform), the non-dimensional period number of the variable magnetic field (VMF) (0.2 ≤ Λ ≤ 0.8), the inclination angle of the VMF (0 ≤ χ ≤ 90), Rayleigh number (5 × 103 ≤ Ra ≥ 105) and Hartmann number (5 ≤ Ha ≥ 100) on thermal performance, heat transfer rate, entropy generation and flow patterns.
Originality/value
To the authors’ best knowledge, this paper is the first numerical investigation deals with the entropy generation and natural convection of hybrid nanofluid in a two-dimensional cavity, with specific thermal boundary conditions, containing an elliptical block under periodic-variable magnetic field. Different combinations between flow-governing parameters were made to find optimal thermal performance.
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Majid Siavashi and Shirzad Iranmehr
The purpose of this study is to analyze a new idea for external flow over a cylinder to increase the heat transfer and reduce pressure drop. Using wedge-shaped porous media in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to analyze a new idea for external flow over a cylinder to increase the heat transfer and reduce pressure drop. Using wedge-shaped porous media in the front and wake regions of the cylinder can improve its hydrodynamic, and the rotating flow in the wake region can enhance the heat transfer with increased porous–liquid contact. Permeability plays a vital role, as a high-permeable medium improves heat transfer, whereas a low-permeable region improves the hydrodynamic.
Design/methodology/approach
Therefore, in the current research, external forced convection of nanofluid laminar flow over a bundle of cylinders is simulated using a two-phase mixture model. Four cases with different porous blocks around the cylinder are assessed: rectangular porous; wedge shape in trailing edge (TEP); wedge shape in leading and trailing edges (LTEP); and no porous block case. Also, three different lengths of wedge-shaped regions are considered for TEP and LTEP cases.
Findings
Results are presented in terms of Nusselt (Nu), Euler (Eu) and the performance evaluation criterion (PEC) numbers for various Reynolds (Re) and Darcy (Da) numbers.
Originality/value
It was found that in most situations, LTEP case provides the highest Nu and PEC values. Also, optimal Re and porous medium length exist to maximize PEC, depending on the values of Da and nanofluid volume fraction.