A review of convective heat transfer in cavity-channel assemblies

Convective heat transfer induced in open cavities is one of the main pillars that the topic of energy saving relies on. Thus, scanning and evaluation of works dealing with such a topic is of crucial importance. This article reviews and categorizes the results of researches on mixed convection in open cavity connected with a channel, and highlighting the gap that researchers should fill in future works. It is found that the best heat and mass transfer is attained when the source of heat and/or species is located at a vertical wall of the cavity where it opposites the direction of the flow. The review has demonstrated that the Reynolds number augments the mixed convection, while the magnetic field suppress it. The review has revealed that the experimental studies are relatively scare where it 10% of the total reviewed studies, while those dealing with nanofluids and porous media are 9% for each. It is found that the process of injection or aspiration of the flow have received very few studies despite its promised improvement of the heat and mass transfer. Furthermore, few researches have studied the contamination removing from the cavity. Thus, more attention is required to fill these two gaps.