Natural convection in rectangular enclosures with one thermally active and differentially heated vertical side

Abstract

Natural convective fluid flow and heat transfer in rectangular enclosures bounded by three adiabatic walls and one thermally active and differentially heated vertical side were predicted by using the finite difference method. The effects of different temperature functions, aspect ratio and Rayleigh numbers on the natural convective flow and heat transfer in the rectangular enclosures were thereby studied. The predicted convective heat transfer and convection vigour increase monotonically with the increase in Rayleigh number for a fixed aspect ratio and for each of the three temperature functions considered. Further results show that while an increase in the aspect ratio suppresses convection vigour and heat transfer a decrease in aspect ratio enhances them.

Journal of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology Vol. 3(2) 2003: 1-7