The Measurement of Natural Convective Heat Transfer in Triangular Enclosures

Abstract

Heat transfer rates were experimentally measured for laminar convection air flows in two-dimensional triangular enclosures with two side walls which were heated and cooled and an adiabatic bottom. Both local and overall heat transfer data were obtained by the use of a Wollaston prism schlieren interferometer. The angle between the two isothermal side walls was varied between 60 and 120 deg, which resulted in a variation in aspect ratio (enclosure height/base width) between 0.29 and 0.87, while the Grashof number was varied between 2.9 × 106 and 9.0 × 106. Results are compared to previously obtained isothermal inclined flat plate data and rectangular enclosure data. Present results agree with rectangular enclosure results. One deviation from local rectangular enclosure data was found in the apex regions of the triangular enclosures, where complex thermal and flow interactions occurred due to proximity of the two side walls.

Experimental and numerical analysis of buoyancy-induced flow in inclined triangular enclosures

“…First attempt to measure some properties of fluid flow and temperature via experimental technique due to natural convection in triangular enclosure was performed by Flack et al [6]. They also studied the natural convection on isosceles triangular enclosures, but they did not study the effects of inclination angle on buoyancy-induced flow.…”

Numerical analysis of laminar natural convection in isosceles triangular enclosures for cold base and hot inclined walls

“…One of the first studies about natural convection in triangular enclosures was a solely experimental study made by Flack et al (1979). They presented experimental data on heat transfer in an isosceles air-filled triangular enclosure with two isothermal sides and an insulated bottom.…”

Numerical Simulation-Aided Parametric Analysis of Natural Convection in a Roof of Triangular Enclosures

“…Salmun [7,8] presented convection patterns in a triangular domain and the instability of a single cell in a steady state solution 69 Downloaded by [University of Connecticut] at 08:51 13 October 2014 in a triangular enclosure. Flack et al [9] presented experimental data on heat transfer in an isosceles air-filled triangular enclosure with two isothermal sides and an insulated bottom. Later, Flack et al [10] obtained laser velocimetry data and theoretically predicted the velocities of flow field in a triangular enclosure that had previously been studied to elucidate heat transfer correlations.…”