OPTIMAL GEOMETRIC ARRANGEMENT OF STAGGERED VERTICAL PLATES IN NATURAL-CONVECTION

This paper documents the geometric optimization of an assembly of stag gered vertical plates that are installed in a fixed volume, The heat t ransfer is by laminar natural convection. The objective is to maximize the overall thermal conductance between the assembly of plates and th e surrounding fluid. The geometric parameters that vary are the horizo ntal spacing between adjacent columns of plates, the number of plates mounted in each vertical column, the plate dimensions, and the stagger between columns. The optimization is performed numerically and experi mentally in the range Pr = 0.72 and 10(3) less than or equal to Ra-L l ess than or equal to 10(6), where Ra-L is the Rayleigh number based on the vertical dimension of the assembly(L). The results for the optima l horizontal spacing are correlated using formulas derived from the th eory of the intersection of asymptotes (Bejan, 1984, 1995).