Thermal convection heat transfer of air/water layers enclosed in horizontal annuli with mixed boundary conditions

This paper presents a numerical study for thermal convection of air/water layers enclosed in a horizontal concentric/eccentric cylindrical annulus with the inner wall subjected to a constant heat flux and an isothermal condition at the outer wall. Results are generated for an annulus of radius ratio of 2.6 with three different vertically eccentric positions of the inner cylinder, the modified Rayleigh number up to 10⁷, and the modified Marangoni number varying from 0.0 to 10⁴. The heat transfer characteristics and fluid flow patterns driven by buoyancy and/or thermocapillary effects in air/water-filled annulus are illustrated by means of contour maps of healtline and streamline respectively. Under the mixed thermal boundary conditions considered, significant heat exchange across the air-water interface is found and appears to be unaffected by the thermocapillary convection.