Natural Convection Along a

L. S. Yao
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace
Vertical Wavy Surface
Engineering, A transformation method is applied to study the natural convection along irregular
Arizona State University, vertical surfaces. A sinusoidal surface is used as a specific example to demonstrate
Tempe, Ariz. 85287 the advantages of the transformation method, and to elucidate the heat transfer
Mem. ASME mechanism near such surfaces. The numerical results show that the frequency of the
local heat transfer rate is twice that of the wavy surface. The amplitude of the
oscillating local Nusselt number gradually decreases downstream where the natural
convection boundary layer grows thick.

1 Introduction 2 Analysis
Since the work of Schmidt and Beckman [1], natural The physical model considered is a semi-infinite vertical
convection has been one of the most important research topics wavy plate. The surfaces of the plate can be described by
in heat transfer. A vast amount of literature is now available y=d(x) (1)
for different heating conditions, for various kinds of
geometries, and for a variety of fluids. Comprehensive The characteristic length associated with the wavy surface is /.
reviews can be found in [2, 3]. However, very few studies The temperature of the wavy surface is held at T, which is
which illustrate the effects of complex geometries on natural warmer than the ambient temperature T. The mathematical
convection have been reported. In general, it is not easy to formulation outlined below is for arbitrary a. Later a
study a heat transfer problem associated with a complex numerical solution is provided for a sinusoidal wavy surface
geometry, even with the help of modern computers. to elucidate explicitly the geometric effect on natural con-
In this paper, simple transformation is proposed to trans- vection.
form a complex geometry into a simple shape for which the The dimensional governing equations are the Navier-Stokes
equations of natural convection can be solved by methods equations and the energy equation in two-dimensional
previously developed. The transformation itself is rather Cartesian coordinates (x, y) (see Fig. 1). The dimensionless
simple, but it can handle very complex geometries. The form of the equations, after ignoring terms of small orders in
equations in transformed space are more complicated than Gr, are
their original forms, but the effort required to solve the du dv
transformed equations numerically is about the same as that =0 (2a)
for the original equations, if one ignores the complication of dx dr
arranging the computational grid to fit the complex geometry. ^ du du dP dP
Sometimes an analytical solution, which is unlikely to be U h V + Gr'
discovered from the original set of equations, can be obtained dx dr Hx ~dr~
from the transformed equations.
In the next section, the analysis is carried out for the
natural convection along a vertical surface of arbitrary shape.
Then a numerical solution is provided for a sinusoidal wavy
surface in order to elucidate the effects of complex geometries
on natural convection. The sinusoidal wavy surface can be
viewed as an approximation to many practical geometries for
which natural convective heat transfer is of interest. A
familiar example is a cooling fin, often treated in elementary
texts. Cooling fins have a larger heat transfer area than a flat
surface; therefore, they are better heat transfer devices. Very
few texts mention the geometric effects of fins on the heat
transfer coefficient. Another example is a machined-roughed
surface for heat transfer enhancement. Numerous data have
been obtained which show the heat transfer coefficient is
indeed larger due to the induced turbulent mixing. In this
paper, we will show that an induced fluid motion normal to
the surface can contribute to a heat transfer enhancement,
even for the condition of laminar flow. Another example,
only remotely related to the problem considered in this paper,
is the interface between concurrent or countercurrent two-
phase flow. Such an interface is always wavy and the
momentum transfer across it is by no means similar to that f ( x ) = a sin kx
across a smooth, flat surface, and neither is the heat transfer.
Therefore, the wavy interface can have an important effect on
the condensation process.

Contributed by the Heat Transfer Division for publication in the JOURNAL OF

HEAT TRANSFER. Manuscript received by the Heat Transfer Division October 1,
1982. Fig. 1 Physical model and coordinates

Journal of Heat Transfer AUGUST 1983, Vol. 105/465

Copyright 1983 by ASME
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 32U l+a'2 j ^ g .
+ e + (i + ff'2) (2b) ,, , oG BQ (4c)
dx 2 (4x)u +(v-yu)
dx By Pr By2
oP ,,, , dP
a"u2 + a'Q=a' G r 1 / 4 . ( 1 + a'2)' (2c) where
dx Br
,50 .39 l + a'2 d2Q x = / ,y
(4x)iM
u~ +v - = 5- (2d) i^x \
Bx dr Pr Br
PgATJ
where
u u
Gr> (3a) (5)
,r (4x)w2 (4figATx)W2'
/ /
v-a'u
p-l2 (4x) 1 / 4 y =
Ob)
pv2Gr / figATv2 \ 1/4

ul (v-o'u)'l \ 4x )
(3c)
rGr77* Gr 1/4 Equation (4b) is identical to the momentum equation along
the wavy surface. For a slightly curved surface, say a ~
T-T,* G r ~ l / 4 , the curvature effects become small and are negligible.
(3d)
The lowest-order equations are then reduced to those for a flat
plate. F o r a wavy surface of finite amplitude, the curvature
do da effects are important and cannot be ignored.
(3e)
dx ~dx The associated boundary conditions are
and (0 On the wavy surface (y = 0):
Pgl\T -T ,) 9=1 (constant temperature) (6)
Gr = Of)
u=v=0 (6b)
The key step is to transform the irregular wavy surface into (0) Matching with the quiescent free stream (y -~ oo);
a flat surface by use of equation (3a). The transformed
coordinates (x, r) are not orthogonal, but a regular rec- 9-0 and u - 0 (6c)
tangular computational grid can be easily fitted in the It should be noted that condition (6b) is equivalent to the no-
transformed coordinates. It is also worthwhile to point out slip/no-penetrability condition on the solid wavy surface,
that (u, v) are the velocity components parallel to (x, y) and since u and v are linearly independent.
are not parallel to nor perpendicular to the wavy surface. The A numerical solution of equations (4) by a finite-difference
convection induced by the wavy surface is explicitly described method is straightforward, since the computational grids can
in equations (2). Equation (2c) indicates that the pressure be fitted to the body shape in (x, y) coordinates. The central
gradient along the /--direction is 0 ( G r ~ 1 / 4 ) . This implies that difference scheme is used for the diffusion terms, and the
the lowest-order pressure gradient along the x-direction can be forward difference scheme is adopted for the convection
determined from the inviscid-flow solution. For the current terms. The singularity at x = 0 has been removed by the
problem this pressure gradient is zfcro. Equation (2c) also scaling. Therefore, the computation can be started at x = 0,
shows that Gr 1 / 4 3P/dr is 0(1) and is determined by the left- and then marches downstream.
hand side of the equation. Elimination of 3P/dr between At every Ar-station, the computations are iterated until the
equations (2b) and (2c) results in three equations which can be difference of the results of two successive iterations becomes
solved for u, v, and 9 . These equation, in the parabolic negligible, say 1 0 ~ 4 . After several tries, the .y-grid size was
coordinates (x, y) are fixed at 0.02, and the x-grid size at 0.025. By comparing the
Bu Bit dv results for different grid size, the conclusion is reached that
( 4 * ) + 2u-y + =0, (4a) the accuracy of the numerical results is much better than 1
percent.
Bx By By
In the next section, numerical results are presented for a =
(4x)u^~~ +(v-yu) +(-2 + - - TT)'U a Sin 27TA- to demonstrate the advantages of the trans-
Bx By
By \ l+a'1 / formation method, and to elucidate the geometric effects on
2 the natural convection. For other shapes of the surface, a
e B u
(4b) similar computation can be carried out by simply inputting
+ ( 1 + <T' 2 )'
l+a'- By2 the appropriate function for a.

Nomenclature

a = amplitude of wave T = temperature

g = gravitational acceleration velocity components
Gr = Grashof number, equation (3f) x,y = coordinates Superscripts
I = wave length kinematic viscosity - = dimensional quantity
Nu = Nusselt number dimensionless amplitude of ' = derivative with respect to x
P = pressure wave = a/l
Pr = Prandt number = one thermal expansion coefficient Subscripts
5 = distance measured along the a surface geometry function, w = surface
surface from the leading edge Fig. 1 oo free stream

466/ Vol. 105, AUGUST 1983 Transactions of the ASME

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 X 1.50,2.00
X " 1.73,2.29
Fig. 2 Axial velocity profiles (a = 0.1)
Fig. 3 Normal velocity profiles (a = 0.1)
3 Results and Discussion
The velocity component, w, is plotted for a = 0.1 in Fig. 2.
The nodes of the sinusoidal waves are at x = 1.5, and 2 while
x = 1.75 is the trough, and x = 2.25 is the crest. The velocity
profiles at the trough and the crest differ only slightly, and
cannot be distinguished in Fig. 2. It is obvious that the
boundary layer is thicker near the nodes than near the trough
and the crest. It should be remembered that u is not the
velocity component parallel to the wavy surface. Its
magnitude alone cannot determine the local heat transfer rate.
The velocity component, v, is given in Fig. 3 for x = 1.5
and 1.75, respectively. The difference between the profiles at
x = 1.5 (node) and x = 2.0 (node) is indistinguishable in the
scale of Fig. 3; this is also true for the profiles at x = 1.75
(trough) and x = 2.25 (crest). It also should be noticed that v
is not normal to the wavy surface, but is normal to the x-axis.
The significance of the distribution of v is that the magnitude
of the local heat transfer rate is directly determined by the
direction of the velocity component normal to the wavy
surface, and v contains a major part of this normal velocity
component. The local heat transfer rate is large when the
Journal of Heat Transfer
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X= 1.50,2.00
0.8 1.75,2.25
i 0.6
ct>
0.4
0.2
Fig. 4 Temperature distribution ( = 0.1)
normal velocity is approaching the surface; it is small when
the convective stream moves away from the surface. The heat
transfer mechanism along a wavy surface is different from
that along a flat surface, and is modified by the fluid motion
normal to the surface.
The temperature distributions along the ^-direction are
given in Fig. 4. Since the ^-direction is not normal to the wavy
surface, the temperature gradient determined from Fig. 4 has
to be corrected by the local curvature before the heat transfer
rate can be calculated. The local Nusselt number, defined in
terms of Tw-T, thermal conductivity, k, and the wave
length, can be expressed as
ao
N u ( 4 x / G r ) 1 / 4 = - ( l + a ' 2 ) 1 / 2 - ^ 7 l>' = 0 (7>
Equation (7) is plotted in Fig. 5 for a = 0.1 and a and a = 0.3.
Near the leading edge, the magnitude of the local heat transfer
rate depends on the slope of the wavy surface, so it is mainly
controlled by the stream motion induced by the buoyancy
force parallel to the surface. Downstream the heat transfer
rate varies according to the orientation of the surface. For the
portion of the wavy surface parallel to the gravitational force,
the velocity is larger and so is the heat transfer rate. The
wavelength of the local heat transfer rate is half of that of the
wavy surface. The peak of the heat transfer rate after one
wavelength from the leading edge is shifted slightly upstream
from the trough and the crest due to the convection effect.
The magnitude of the variation of the heat transfer rate
decreases downstream as expected, since the natural con-
vection boundary layer grows thick. The wavy surface effect
in a viscous layer is mainly due to the diffusion process. This
effect becomes small when the amplitude of the wavy surface
is completely covered in the boundary layer. For a = 0.1, the
curve actually approaches a constant which is slightly below
the value, 0.5671, for the flat plate.
The total Nusselt number can be obtained by integrating
equation (7). It is
1+CT'2 ae
Nu/Gr 1 / 4 = dx (8)
7l."[ (4x)1M " "ay ly=o
and
l ' ( 1 + ffy':.dx
/2
(9)
AUGUST 1983, Vol. 105/467
 0.8

Fig. 5 Local heat transfer rate

Equation (8) is plotted in Fig. 6. The curve corresponding to a

= 0 is for a vertical flat plate. For a = 0.3, the wavy
variation of the total Nusselt number can be observed only
near the leading edge, and gradually disappears downstream.
The total Nusselt number for a sinusoidal wavy surface is
constantly smaller than that of the corresponding flat plate.
The total heat transfer rate for a wavy surface, considering a
larger heat transfer area, is about the same as that of a flat
plate.

3
lz 0.6
References
1 Schmidt E., and Beckman, W., "Das Temperatur and Gesch-
windigkeitsfeld vor einer Warmeabgebenden senkrenchten Platte bei
naturlicher Konvection," Tech. Mech. u. Thermodynamic, Bd. 1. No. 10, Oct.
1930, pp. 341-349.
2 Ostrach, S., "Laminar Flows With Body Forces," Theory of Laminar
Flows, High-Speed Aerodynamics and Jet Propulsion, Vol. 4, edited by F. K.
Moore, Princeton, 1964, pp. 28.
3 Gebhart, B., "External Natural Convection Flows," Applied Mechanics
Fig. 6 Averaged heat transfer rate Reviews, Vol. 22, 1969, pp. 691.

(contents continued)

666 Prediction of the Transit Time of a Stably Stratified Flow in a Channel With Inclined Surface
Seung Oh and B. K. H. Sun

667 Cauchy Method for Solidification Interface Shape During Continuous Casting
R. Siegel
671 Experimental Study of Solidification Heat Transfer in an Open Rectangular Cavity
C. J. Hoand R. Viskanta

673 Heat Analysis Through Thin Films: Approximate Analysis and Determination of Effective Heat
Transfer Coefficient
L. E. Bobisud
674 Heat Conduction in Anistropic Wedge and Elliptic Cylinders
S. C. Huang and Y. P. Chang
678 Conductive Heat Transfer Between Eccentric Cylinders With Boundary Conditions of the Third
Kind
R. F. DiFelice, Jr. and H. H. Bau
680 Heat Transfer Behavior of Frozen Soils
H. Inaba

468 / Vol. 105, AUGUST 1983 Transactions o! the ASME

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