Optimal location of a pair heat source-sink in an enclosed square cavity with natural convection through PSO algorithm ☆

Abstract In this paper, the optimum positions of a pair heat source-sink in an enclosure have been studied. The objective of this investigation is to minimize the maximum temperature ( T max ) on the heat source with constant heat flux. For this, a Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (PSOA) has been used. Continuity, momentum and energy equations with the Boussinesq approximation for a laminar and incompressible flow of a Newtonian fluid have been solved by finite volume method. The present study has been carried out for governing parameters like Rayleigh numbers ( Ra ) from 10 3 to 10 6 , the cavity aspect ratio, A  =  H / L  = 1 and the source and sink sizes D 0 from 0.2 to 0.5. Numerical results revealed that the optimum configurations are a function of Rayleigh numbers and the source and sink sizes.