Effect of fin number and position on thermal behavior of natural convection in enclosed cavity using fuzzy controller algorithm

Laminar natural convection in an enclosed cavity with differentially heated walls and having fins on the cold wall is investigated. The effect of the number of fins and their position on the cold wall on heat transfer characteristics is analyzed. Governing equations of continuity, momentum and energy are solved using SIMPLER algorithm. A fuzzy controller with pre-defined set of fuzzy rules is implemented as a guiding mechanism for faster convergence. Relaxation factors are adjusted using fuzzy rules which guide the iterative scheme towards convergence in comparatively fewer numbers of iterations. A total of 16 cases with different fin aspect ratios (0.1 and 0.4) and their position on the cold wall are considered for a range of Grashof numbers (10³, 10⁵ and 10⁷).