Vibration Induced Mixed Convection in an Obstructed Vertical  Cavity

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Professor Kambiz Vafai

Abstract: Vibrational  mixed  convection  inside  an  open-ended cavity  filled  with  a  porous  medium  is investigated  in  this  work.  Vertical  vibration  on  the left  wall  and  buoyancy  induced flow  are  considered.  The effect  of  variations  in  governing parameters,  such  as  vibrational  Reynolds  number,  modified  Rayleigh number,  and  the  Darcy  number on  streamlines,  isotherms,  and  the  average  Nusselt  number  is  discussed. Quantitative assessment  and  three  dimensional  qualitative  mapping  for  vibrational,  buoyancy,  Darcian,  and non-Darcian  effects  is  obtained.  It  is found  that  vibrational  effects  are  more  pronounced  at  higher  values  of Darcy  and  Reynolds  numbers,  while  buoyancy  effects  are  dominant  at  lower  values  of  Darcy  and  higher values of modified Rayleigh numbers. It is also found that Darcy and Regular fluid models are applicable at low  and  high  values  of  Darcy  number  respectively.  At higher  values  of  vibrational  Reynolds  and  modified Rayleigh  numbers,  the  generalized  model  should  be  used.  The  effect of  variations  of Prandtl  number  and dimensionless  frequency  are  also  examined  in  this  work.  Multiple  validations  show  a  very  good agreement with some of the limited aspects of this study presented in previous works.