Optimal location of a pair heat source-sink in an enclosed square cavity with natural convection through PSO algorithm

In this paper, the optimum positions of a pair heat source-sink in an enclosure have been studied. The objective of this investigation is to minimize the maximum temperature (Tmax) on the heat source with constant heat flux. For this, a Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (PSOA) has been used. Continuity, momentum and energy equations with the Boussinesq approximation for a laminar and incompressible flow of a Newtonian fluid have been solved by finite volume method. The present study has been carried out for governing parameters like Rayleigh numbers (Ra) from 103 to 106, the cavity aspect ratio, A = H/L = 1 and the source and sink sizes D0 from 0.2 to 0.5. Numerical results revealed that the optimum configurations are a function of Rayleigh numbers and the source and sink sizes.