NATURAL CONVECTIVE HEAT-TRANSFER IN AN ENCLOSURE PARTLY FILLED WITH ANONPOROUS INSULATION

Solves steady, laminar, two-dimensional, conjugate natural convection in an rectangular enclosure numerically. The enclosure consists of hea ted and cooled isothermal walls connected by either adiabatic or perfe ctly conducting end walls. The enclosure is partially filled with a fi nitely conducting non-porous thermal insulation, adjacent to the heate d surface. Solves the governing equations (in stream function-vorticit y form) using a finite element method, Obtains data Pr = 0.7 over a Ra yleigh number range (based on the enclosure width) of 0 less than or e qual to Ra less than or equal to 10(6). The results show the effect of solid insulation thickness on the average Nusselt number for a range of enclosure aspect ratios, inclination angles and solid-to-fluid cond uctivity ratios. Aims to determine the conditions that produce the min imum overall heat transfer rate.