Convective heat transfer in an internally heated horizontal fluid layer with unequal boundary temperatures

Abstract

An experimental investigation was conducted on the steady-state convective heat transfer in a horizontal water layer with isothermal, horizontal boundaries at unequal temperatures. Joule heating provided a uniform heat source throughout the fluid layer. Heat flux through each horizontal boundary was determined from the measured temperature drop across a plate of known thickness and thermal conductivity. The results were correlated by expressing the fraction of internally generated heat transferred downward as an explicit function of internal and external Rayleigh numbers.