Large-scale flow structures and heat transport of turbulent forced and mixed convection in a closed rectangular cavity

Results of an experimental study of flow structure formation and heat transport in turbulent forced and mixed convection are presented. The experiments were conducted in a rectangular cavity with a square cross section, which has an aspect ratio between length and height of Γxz = 5. Air at atmospheric pressure was used as working fluid. The air inflow was supplied through a slot below the ceiling, while exhausting was provided by another slot, which is located directly above the floor. Both vents extend over the whole length of the cell. In order to induce thermal convection the bottom of the cell is heated while the ceiling is maintained at a constant temperature. This configuration allows to generate and study mixed convection under well defined conditions. Results of forced convection at Re = 1.07 × 104 as well as mixed convection at 1.01 × 104 ⩽ Re ⩽ 3.4 × 104 and Ra = 2.4 × 108 (3.3 ⩾ Ar ⩾ 0.3), which were obtained by means of Particle Image Velocimetry and local temperature measurements, are presented. For purely forced convection a 2D mean wind, which can be approximated by a solid body rotation, is found. With increasing Archimedes number this structure becomes unstable, leading to a transition of the solid body rotation into additional smaller convection rolls. Proper orthogonal decomposition of the instantaneous velocity fields has been performed for further analysis of these coherent large-scale structures. Their fingerprint is found in the spatial temperature distribution of the out flowing air at the end of the outlet channel, which reveals a temporally stable profile with two maxima over the length of the outlet. Moreover a maximum in the global enthalpy transport by the fluid is found at Ar ≈ 0.6.