LAMINAR NATURAL-CONVECTION BETWEEN PARTIALLY HEATED VERTICAL PARALLELPLATES

A numerical analysis has been performed to examine the characteristics of laminar natural convection in vertical channel with unheated entry and unheated exit. The heated section is subjected to uniform wall te mperature (UWT) or uniform heat flux (UHF). Theoretical results for av erage Nusselt number NuBAR and induced volume flow rate Q were derived under fully developed condition. Particular attention is paid to inve stigating the effects of the partially heated section on the induced v olume flow rate and Nusselt number for various conditions. Results sho w that for UWT the induced volume flow rate Q increases with decreasin g unheated entry length or increasing total length of heated section a nd unheated exit. For a fixed unheated entry length, the channel with a longer heated section length causes a greater Q. Additionally, for b oth UWT and UHF, the average Nusselt number NuBAR under fully-develope d condition increases with increasing value of E1/E2.