Effects of Joule heating on EHD-enhanced natural convection in an enclosure

Electrohydrodynamically enhanced natural convection in an enclosure is numerically examined in this paper with a particular interest on the effects of Joule heating. Attention has also been focused on the stability of the flow and temperature fields under the influence of an electric field. Calculations have covered a wide range of parameters, i.e., 10/spl les/V/sub 0//spl les/17.5 kV and 10/sup 9//spl les/Ra/spl les/10/sup 6/. Results which include the transient variation of isotherm and streamline patterns as well as a parameterization of the Nusselt vs. Rayleigh number relation in terms of the electrical field conditions are presented.