Investigation of mixed convection heat transfer in a horizontal channel with discrete heat sources at the top and at the bottom

Mixed convection heat transfer from arrays of discrete heat sources inside a horizontal channel has been investigated experimentally. Each of the lower and upper surfaces of the channel was equipped with 8 x 4 flush mounted heat sources subjected to uniform heat flux. Sidewalls, lower and upper walls are insulated and adiabatic. The experimental parametric study was made for aspect ratios of AR = 2, 4 and 10, at various Reynolds and Grashof numbers. From the experimental measurements, row-average surface temperature and Nusselt number distributions of the discrete heat sources were obtained and effects of Reynolds and Grashof numbers on these numbers were investigated. From these results, the buoyancy affected secondary flow and the onset of instability have been discussed. Results show that top and bottom heater surface temperatures increase with increasing Grashof number. The top heater average-surface temperatures for AR = 2 are greater than those of bottom ones. For high values of Grashof numbers where natural convection is the dominant heat transfer regime (Gr*/Re-2 >> 1), temperatures of top heaters can have much greater values. The variation of the row-average Nusselt numbers for the aspect ratio of AR = 4, show that with the increase in the buoyancy affected secondary flow and the onset of instability, values of Nusselt number level off and even rise as a result of heat transfer enhancement especially for low Reynolds numbers. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.