Mixed convection heat transfer from confined tandem square cylinders in a horizontal channel

This paper presents a numerical study on the two-dimensional laminar mixed convective flow and heat transfer around two identical isothermal square cylinders arranged in tandem and confined in a channel. The spacing between the cylinders is fixed with four widths of the cylinder and the blockage ratio and the Prandtl number are fixed at 0.1 and 0.7 respectively. The mixed convective flow and heat transfer is simulated by high accuracy multidomain pseudospectral method. The Reynolds number (Re) is studied in the range 80 ≤ Re ≤ 150, the Richardson number (Ri) demonstrating the influence of thermal buoyancy ranges from 0 to 1. Numerical results reveal that, with the thermal buoyancy effect, the mixed convective flow sheds vortex behind the cylinders and keeps periodic oscillating. The variations of characteristic quantities related to flow and heat transfer processes, such as the overall drag and lift coefficients and the Nusselt numbers, are presented and discussed. Furthermore, the influence of thermal buoyancy on the fluid flow and heat transfer are discussed and analysed. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.