Numerical analysis of partially heated vertical parallel plates in naturalconvective cooling

This paper addresses the significance of adding insulated extensions to a p arallel-plate channel in which the plates receive a uniform heat flux and a natural convection airflow is responsible for the cooling. The wan tempera tures may decrease or increase, depending on whether the channel extensions are appended at the inlet or at the exit of the channel. The full elliptic conservation equations are solved numerically in an I-type composite compu tational domain. For the two cases treated, the pertinent results are repor ted in terms of wall temperature profiles, induced mass flow? rates, and pr essure profiles. The insulated extension placed downstream of the heated pa rt implies a reduction of the maximum wan temperature. This effect is less relevant as the Rayleigh number increases. In addition, correlations have b een obtained between the induced mass flow rate as wed as the maximum wall temperatures and the Rayleigh number and the extension ratio ill the invest igated range of parameters.