Natural convection combined with thermal radiation in a square cavity filled with a viscoelastic fluid

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study natural convective heat transfer and viscoelastic fluid flow in a differentially heated square cavity under the effect of thermal radiation. Design/methodology/approach The cavity filled with a viscoelastic fluid is heated uniformly from the left wall and cooled from the right side while insulated from horizontal walls. Governing partial differential equations formulated in non-dimensional stream function, vorticity and temperature with corresponding boundary conditions have been solved by finite difference method of second order accuracy. The effects of Rayleigh number ( Ra = 1e+3−1e+5), radiation parameter ( R d = 0 − 10), Prandtl number ( Pr = 1 − 30) and elastic number ( E = 0.0001 − 0.001) on flow patterns, temperature fields, average Nusselt number at hot vertical wall and rate of fluid flow have been studied. Findings It has been found that a growth of elastic number leads to the heat transfer reduction and convective flow attenuation. The heat conduction is a dominating heat transfer mechanism for high values of radiation parameter. Originality/value The originality of this work is to analyze heat transfer and fluid flow of a viscoelastic fluid inside a differentially heated cavity. The results would benefit scientists and engineers to become familiar with the flow and heat behavior of non-Newtonian fluids, and the way to predict the properties of this flow for possibility of using viscoelastic fluids in compact heat exchangers, electronic cooling systems, polymer engineering, etc.