A study on different methods to change the Rayleigh number in the analysis of heat transfer

Abstract

Abstract This study provides awareness about natural convection and associated non-dimensional numbers like the Prandtl number, Grashof number, Rayleigh number, and Reynolds number. The main focus of this research is to present the different methods employed to vary the Rayleigh number $$\:\left(Ra\right)$$ in an extensive range. The research concludes that changing the gravity value to obtain the considerable variation in $$\:Ra$$ is also a possible method for conducting the numerical analysis and observing the impact of the Rayleigh number. The validation of the numerical scheme with existing literature is provided here. An attempt is made to show that similar effects could be obtained by changing the value of gravity and the body’s characteristics length. The comparative results obtained by changing length and gravity are presented which gives almost the same result $$\:(\pm\:\:10\%\:$$ error) to get the same $$\:Ra$$ . This presents the beauty of a non-dimensional study. Moreover, it is possible to say that in the non-dimensional analysis of engineering practice, the individual variables that are changed are not important considering the non-dimensional results.