Effect of Partition Wall on Natural Convection Heat Transfer in a Vertical Air Layer

Abstract

Three-dimensional natural convection heat transfer characteristics in a vertical air layer partitioned into cubical enclosures by partition walls of finite thermal conductivity and finite thickness were obtained numerically. The air layer is differentially heated from each surface. In this work, the analyses were performed using finite thickness and finite conductivity of the partition wall for Ra=104 and 105, and for wide range of the thickness and the conductivity of the partition wall. The results were presented in the form of overall convection and total heat transfer coefficient. From the comparison of the results with the traditional ideal boundary conditions such as “conduction,” “adiabatic,” and “no-thickness,” the correlation of the heat transfer with the actual partition wall and the ideal boundary conditions were developed. After examinations of the results, it was shown that the proportion of the heat transfer quantity in the partition wall to the total heat transfer quantity from the hot wall is a function of a product of the thermal conductivity and the thickness of the partition wall.