Natural convection in vertical cylindrical enclosures has received barely any research, compared to the extensive study of natural flows in rectangular boxes. Still, these geometries are extremely important from a basic and practical standpoint to comprehend, for example, convection events in hydrocarbon storage tanks. However, this study is dedicated to laminar natural convection in a cylindrical enclosure, focusing on validation of the paper entitled “ Laminar natural convection in a laterally heated and upper cooled vertical cylindrical enclosure”.

Simulation Process

Figure 1 presents the problem’s geometry. It is assumed that the flow is two-dimensional and laminar. Given the lateral heating, the axial symmetry theory is plausible, as long as the aspect ratio remains around unity. Additionally, we employ the Boussinesq approximation, which means that density fluctuations are only considered in the Navier-Stokes equation’s buoyancy factor.

Post-processing

The temperature fields in demonstrate how the “cold zone” on the sidewall enlarges as the aspect ratio rises. It should be noticed that although the maximum temperature is relatively constant, the lowest temperature, which is evidently placed in the center of the ceiling, drops. Just like Figure 4 of the paper, the temperature is plotted at Ra=10e+5. The plots prove a full agreement along the line, thus the paper is validated, and the CFD simulation gains validity.

Temperature vertical profile near bottom at r=0.5; Ra=10e+5, Pr=0.7