ARTICLE:

• A NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF THE DAYTIME NATURAL CONVECTION IN A RESERVOIR SIDEARM  download article

Chengwang Lei
School of Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville QLD 4811, Australia

John C. Patterson
School of Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville QLD 4811, Australia

ABSTRACT

The natural convection in a reservoir sidearm subject to daylight solar radiation is investigated with a numerical procedure, which reveals three stages of the flow development. At the early stage the heat transfer is dominated by bottom heating due to the absorption of radiation there. The transition stage is characterised by the onset of convective instability due to the growth of a vertically adverse temperature gradient in the thermal boundary layer. At the quasi-steady state, a distinct horizontal temperature gradient is established in the sidearm, which maintains a large-scale steady circulation.

 download article

745-752 pages

« Previous article         Next article »