LAMINAR MIXED CONVECTION IN A PARTIALLY BLOCKED, VERTICAL CHANNEL

A numerical investigation is made of laminar mixed convection of air in a vertical channel containing a partial rectangular blockage on one channel wall. The wall containing the blockage is assumed to be heated while the other wall is assumed to be either adiabatic (asymmetric heating) or heated (symmetric heating). Results indicate that at low values of Gr/Re**2 the maximum velocity occurs near the adiabatic wall in the asymmetrically heated channel. As Gr/Re**2 increases, this peak shifts towards the hot wall. Reverse flow is predicted beyond the blockage. In this reverse flow region temperature variations are small. The average Nusselt number in the blockage and the pre-blockage regions increases with decreasing Gr/ Re**2 values.