NATURAL CONVECTION IN PARTITIONED ENCLOSURES WITH LOCALIZED HEATING

The aim of the present investigation was to study numerically the natural convection in partitioned enclosures with localized heating from below. Two-dimensional equations of conservation of mass, momentum and energy, with the Boussinesq approximation are solved using finite difference method. Various geometrical parameters were: aspect ratio A = 0.4-0.6, isothermal surface length B = 0.5, its position C = 0.3, partition position D = 0.5-1.0, its length E = 0.2-0.6, heat source length X = 0.05-1.00, and its position epsilon = variable. The Rayleigh number was varied from 10(3) to 10(6). The results are reduced in terms of the normalized Nusselt number as a function of the Rayleigh number, and other non-dimensional geometrical parameters. The isotherms and streamlines are produced for various Rayleigh numbers and geometrical conditions.