School of Engineering, The University of Queensland
Abstract
Free convection cooling of isothermal circular cylinders positioned above a horizontal plane is investigated numerically, using a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software package. Computation is performed for high Rayleigh number, in the range 109 − 1011. Chien’s turbulence model of low-Reynolds-number K-ε is used, with Prandtl number of 0.707, corresponding to air near standard conditions. Influence of the underlying plane on heat transfer from the cylinders' surface is examined. As the gap between the plane and cylinders is narrowed, a pattern can be seen whereby heat transfer reaches a minimum that moves closer to the cylinder surface with higher Rayleigh number. The plane’s thermal condition, adiabatic versus isothermal, produces no significant difference in the heat transfer for the present range of gap ratio, in contrast to laminar case
