Free convection heat transfer from a horizontal fin attached cylinder between confined nearly adiabatic walls

Steady state two-dimensional free convection heat transfer from a horizontal, isothermal fin attached cylinder, located between nearly two adiabatic walls is studied experimentally using a Mach–Zehnder interferometer. Effects of the walls inclination angel (θ) on heat transfer from the cylinder is investigated for Rayleigh number ranging from 1000 to 15,500. Two cylinders with different diameters of D = 10 and 20 mm are used to cover wide Rayleigh range. Results indicate that, heat transfer phenomena differ for different Rayleigh number. For Rayleigh numbers lower than 5500, heat transfer rate from cylinder surface is lower than the heat transfer from a single cylinder. In this range by the use of walls, heat transfer from the cylinder decreases slightly and walls’ inclination does not change heat transfer rate from the cylinder surface. For Rayleigh number ranging from 5500 to 15,500, amount of heat transfer from the cylinder surface is less than that of a single cylinder. However, by adding nearly adiabatic walls to experimental model heat transfer mechanism differs and chimney effect between fin and walls increases the heat transfer rate from the cylinder surface. By increasing the walls inclination angel from 0° to 20°, the chimney effect between walls and fin diminishes and heat transfer rate from the cylinder surface is approaching to the heat transfer rate of fin attached cylinder without adiabatic walls.