NATURAL-CONVECTION IN SHALLOW ENCLOSURES WITH MULTIPLE CONDUCTING PARTITIONS

Laminar natural convection and conduction in shallow enclosures having multiple partitions with finite thickness and conductivity have been studied. An approximate analytical solution is obtained by using the parallel flow approximation in horizontal shallow enclosures heated isothermally at two vertical ends while adiabatic on horizontal end walls. The same problem is solved also using a finite difference formulation and the control volume method. The study covers the range of Ra from 10(5) to 10(7), A=H/Lless-than-or-equal-to0.2, C=l/L from 0 to 0.15, and the thermal conductivity ratio of partition to fluid k(r) from 10(-4) to 10(11). The partition number N was varied from 0 to 5. The Prandtl number was 0.72 (for air). The results are reduced in terms of Nu as a function of Ra, k(r) and various geometrical parameters (A, C). The streamlines and isotherms are produced to visualize the flow and temperature fields.