MIXED CONVECTION IN AN INCLINED CHANNEL WITH A DISCRETE HEAT-SOURCE

The effects of laminar forced flow on buoyancy-induced natural convection cells throughout the regions of natural, mixed, and forced convection have been numerically investigated for a parallel planes channel with a discrete heat source. Emphasis is placed on the influence of the inlet flow velocity and the inclination angle of the channel, and the local buoyancy induced by the discrete source. The results indicate that the overall Nusselt number of the source strongly depends on the inclination angle (gamma) in the natural and mixed convection regimes when gamma > 45-degrees. On the other hand, the changes in Nu and theta(s,max) are negligible when the channel is from 0 to 45-degrees, i.e. there is no significant penalty in heat transfer due to the inclination of the channel up to gamma = 45-degrees. As Gr increases at a fixed Re, the entrainment of the air from the downstream exit is observed for the case of aiding flow.