Volumetric Methods for Evaluating Energy Loss and Heat Transfer in Cavity Flows

Abstract

Methods have been developed for calculating irreversible energy losses and rates of heat transfer from computational fluid dynamics solutions using volume integrations of energy dissipation or entropy production functions. These methods contrast with the more usual approach of performing first law energy balances over the boundaries of a flow domain. Advantages of the volumetric approach are that the estimates involve the whole flow domain and are hence based on more information than would otherwise be used, and that the energy dissipation or entropy production functions allow for detailed assessment of the mechanisms and regions of energy loss or entropy production. Volume integrations are applied to the calculation of viscous losses in a lid-driven cavity flow, and to the viscous losses and heat transfer due to natural convection in a side-heated cavity. In the convection problem comparison with the entropy increase across a stationary heat conducting layer leads to a novel volume integral expression for the Nusselt number. The predictions using this method compare well with traditional surface integrals and benchmark results.