Irreversibility distribution for a pure convection case of the Smith-Hutton problem

The irreversibility distributions for a pure convection heat transfer case of the Smith-Hutton problem have been calculated and displayed graphically. The steady state, two-dimensional test problem of Smith-Hutton involves steep variations in temperature and strong streamline curvature in a rectangular flow domain that are encountered in many practical convection-diffusion problems. Combination of the first and second laws of thermodynamics has been utilized to calculate the irreversibility distribution ratio and the Bejan number with various degrees of steepness parameter in the temperature field. The shapes of the temperature and velocity profiles are the ones that maximize or minimize the total entropy generation rate. This shows the important relationship between the empirical nature of convection treatment and the irreversibility distribution determined by the thermodynamic analysis.