Description

This project models heat transfer from a wall-mounted radiator inside a room using ANSYS Fluent. The heater, attached to one sidewall, acts as a heat source with a constant heat flux of 1886.792 W/m². The sidewalls and ceiling are 0.2 m thick wood and exchange heat with the outdoors via convection (ambient 280 K, h = 10 W/m²·K). The study focuses on natural convection and buoyancy-driven flow inside the room, so gravity is included.

The 3D geometry is created in SpaceClaim. Meshing is performed in ANSYS Meshing with a structured grid totaling 87,865 elements.

Methodology

The energy model is enabled to resolve conjugate heat transfer between the heater and room air, capturing buoyancy-induced circulation.

Conclusion

Post-processing yields 2D and 3D contours of velocity, temperature, and pressure, along with pathlines and velocity vectors. Results show the radiator elevates room air temperature, with the strongest heating and velocity increases near the walls, especially in the vicinity of the heater.