Natural convection and entropy generation in a square cavity

A natural convection in a square cavity finds considerable interest in thermal engineering applications. However, the use of entropy generation concept enables to identify the optimum conditions for its practical application. Consequently, in the present study, natural convection in a square cavity with differential top and bottom wall temperatures is investigated. A numerical scheme using the control volume approach is introduced when discretizing the governing flow and energy equations. The study is extended to include the analysis of the entropy in the cavity. It is found that the local rise of temperature occurs at the right bottom of the cavity due to vertical circulation developed in the cavity. The entropy generation amplifies when circulation along the x-axis increases and, the entropy generation becomes minimum for a particular Rayleigh number.