A Numerical Study of Natural Convective Heat Transfer From Two-Sided Inclined Square Plates Having a Finite Thickness

Abstract

Simultaneous natural convective heat transfer from the top, bottom and side surfaces of two-sided inclined square plates having various thicknesses has been numerically investigated. The aim of this work is to determine whether the plate thickness has a significant influence on the heat transfer rates from the plate surfaces when the plate is inclined to the horizontal and to determine how the heat transfer rate varies with this angle of inclination. The upper, lower and side surfaces of the plate have been assumed to be isothermal and at the same temperature which is higher than that of the surrounding fluid. The range of conditions considered is such that laminar, transitional, and turbulent flow occur over the plate. The numerical solution has been obtained using the commercial CFD solver ANSYS FLUENT©. In this study, results have only been obtained for the case where the plate is exposed to air. Inclination angles of between 0 and 40 degrees from the horizontal and plate dimensionless thicknesses (thickness-to-side length ratios) of between 0 and 0.3 have been considered. Variations of the mean Nusselt number with Rayleigh number for the top surface, bottom surface, side surface and that averaged over all heated surfaces of the plate for various inclination angles and for various plate dimensionless thicknesses have been obtained.