Buoyancy-aided mixed convection with conduction and surface radiation from a vertical electronic board with a traversable discrete heat source

Abstract

This article presents the results of a comprehensive fundamental numerical study of the problem of buoyancy-aided mixed convection with conduction and surface radiation from a vertical electronic board provided with a traversable, flush-mounted, discrete heat source. Air, a radiatively transparent medium, is considered to be the cooling agent. The governing equations in primitive variables for fluid flow and heat transfer are first converted into stream function–vorticity form, and are later converted into algebraic form using the finite-volume method. The resulting finite-difference equations are solved by Gauss-Seidel iterative technique. The governing equation for temperature distribution along the electronic board is obtained by appropriate energy balance. The effects of pertinent parameters, viz., location of the discrete heat source, surface emissivity of the board, and modifiedRichardson number, on various results, including local temperature distribution along the board, maximum board temperature, and contributions of convection and surface radiation to heat dissipation from the board, are studied in great detail. The fact that any design calculation that ignores surface radiation in problems of this kind would be error-prone is clearly highlighted.