Effect of Ventilation Configuration on Mixed Convection Cooling in Ventilated Enclosures

ABSTRACT To improve the cooling performance of a two‐dimensional vented enclosure, this study aims to identify the ideal inlet‐outlet port sizes and positions. Three distinct inlet‐outlet opening sizes are studied for each of the four enclosure layouts that are considered. The flow is assumed to be laminar, incompressible, and steady. The finite volume method is used to numerically solve the governing equations. The current study focuses on determining the ideal inlet and outlet port positions that improve heat removal and lower the overall temperature distribution inside the cavity to accomplish more efficient cooling within the core region of the enclosure. The study's variable parameters are the Reynolds number (Re) and the Richardson number (Ri). Four Reynolds number , and 200 as well as Richardson numbers between 0 and 10 are investigated while the Prandtl number is fixed at . The streamline patterns show that, especially at higher Richardson numbers, the BT design connects the forced flow with the buoyancy‐driven upward motion, resulting in a more advantageous flow configuration. Improved heat removal in the BT arrangement and increased transfer of heated fluid toward the exit are indicated by the matching isotherm's more consistent and advantageous thermal distribution. The BT arrangement outperforms the other designs under study in terms of thermal performance due to its enhanced heat transfer capacity, which results in higher Nusselt numbers, increased cooling efficiency, and a lower bulk average temperature. According to the numerical comparisons, the BT design outperforms the TT configuration with an average Nusselt number of 95.57% at and a cooling efficiency of 137.36% at . Additionally, when compared to the BB arrangement, the BT setup shows a maximum bulk average temperature drop of 247.80% at . These findings verify that, out of all the configurations taken into consideration, the BT configuration offers the best overall cooling performance. On the other hand, the BB layout produces the least effective cooling performance due to the enclosure's higher flow resistance and stronger temperature stratification.