The Effect of Aiding/Opposing Buoyancy on Two-Dimensional Laminar Flow Across a Circular Cylinder

The effect of thermal buoyancy on the upward flow and heat transfer characteristics around a heated/cooled circular cylinder is studied. A two-dimensional finite-volume model is deployed for the analysis. The influence of aiding/opposing buoyancy is studied for the range of parameters −0.5 ≤ Ri ≤ 0.5, 50 ≤ Re ≤ 150, and the blockage ratios of B = 0.02 and 0.25. The flow shows unsteady periodic nature in the chosen range of Reynolds numbers for the forced convective cases (Ri = 0), and the vortex shedding stops completely at some critical values of Richardson numbers.