Natural Convection in Yield Stress Fluids From a Confined Horizontal Plate

Abstract

The heat transfer characteristics from an isothermal heated plate in a quiescent yield stress fluid in a cavity was investigated over a wide range of parameters (Rayleigh number, 102 ≤ Ra ≤ 105, Prandtl number, 10 ≤ Pr ≤ 100, and Bingham number, Bn ≥ 0) where the flow is known to be laminar and steady. The coupled momentum and energy equations have solved here numerically within the framework of Boussinesq approximation to capture the temperature-dependent fluid density. The results demonstrate that for a given value of the Rayleigh number, there exists a critical value of the Bingham number, above which the fluid is completely unyielded and heat transfer occurs solely by conduction. In order to delineate the effect of domain geometry on the conduction limit, the study was extended over a range of geometrical aspects by varying the aspect ratio (λ = diameter of the cavity/ a length of the plate), 2 ≤ λ ≤ 5. This work shows that the critical value of the Bingham number can be described as a function of geometry of domain, Ra and Pr. The value of critical Bingham number increases with the increasing aspect ratio and Rayleigh number in order to approach the conduction limit. The yield surfaces show that the increasing values of Rayleigh number induce fluid-like behaviour whereas Bingham number opposes this propensity. The average Nusselt number decreases with the increasing Bingham number due to the suppression of the advective component of heat transfer.