NATURAL-CONVECTION HEAT-TRANSFER IN A PARTIALLY OR COMPLETELY PARTITIONED VERTICAL RECTANGULAR ENCLOSURE

The effect of symmetric partitions protruding centrally from the end walls of a rectangular vertical enclosure on heat transfer rates is investigated numerically. The enclosure has opposite isothermal walls at different temperatures. The Rayleigh number is varied from 10(4) to 10(7) and the aspect ratio from 0.5 to 10. The thickness of the partitions is fixed and equal to one tenth of the width of the enclosure. Their non-dimensional length (L/H) is varied from 0 (non-partitioned enclosure) to 0.5 (two separate enclosures). The effect of different thermal boundary conditions at the end walls and at the partitions is included in the investigation.