Natural convective heat transfer in an enclosure partly filled with a non‐porous insulation

Abstract

Solves steady, laminar, two‐dimensional, conjugate natural convection in an rectangular enclosure numerically. The enclosure consists of heated and cooled isothermal walls connected by either adiabatic or perfectly conducting end walls. The enclosure is partially filled with a finitely conducting non‐porous thermal insulation, adjacent to the heated surface. Solves the governing equations (in stream function‐vorticity form) using a finite element method. Obtains data Pr = 0.7 over a Rayleigh number range (based on the enclosure width) of 0 ≤ Ra ≤ 10⁶. The results show the effect of solid insulation thickness on the average Nusselt number for a range of enclosure aspect ratios, inclination angles and solid‐to‐fluid conductivity ratios. Aims to determine the conditions that produce the minimum overall heat transfer rate.

Citation

Naylor, D. and Oosthuizen, P.H. (1996), "Natural convective heat transfer in an enclosure partly filled with a non‐porous insulation", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 6 No. 5, pp. 37-48. https://doi.org/10.1108/09615539610125953