Laminar Natural Convection in a Square Cavity with a Partition on the Heated Vertical Wall

Abstract

The laminar natural convection in an air-filled square cavity with a partition on the heated vertical wall was experimentally investigated. Temperature measurements and flow visualizations were performed for cases with heated and cooled vertical walls (corresponding to a global Grashof number Gr _H of approximately 1.4 × 10⁸) and non dimensional top wall temperatures θ _T of 0.57 (insulated) to 2.3. Experiments were performed with an aluminum partition with non dimensional height H _P /H of 0.0625 and 0.125 attached to the heated vertical wall at y/H = 0.65 and 0.95. The blockage effect and/or the thermal effect of the partition resulted in changes to the temperature and flow fields but were mainly limited to the vicinity of the partition. For the cases with the heated top wall, the change in the height of the partition at y/H = 0.95 resulted in changes to the ambient temperature outside the boundary layer due to the reduction of the size of the recirculating flow in the corner region. The changes in the partition height and the top wall temperature affected the blockage effect of the partition, resulting in the local Nusselt number near the corner region to be affected. The local Nusselt number over most of the heated vertical wall of the partitioned cavity (y/H < 0.7) was correlated to the local Rayleigh number in the form Nu = C · Ra ⁿ .