Effect of the surface thermal radiation on turbulent natural convection in tall cavities of façade elements

Abstract

The effect of the surface thermal radiation in tall cavities with turbulent natural convection regime was analyzed and quantified numerically. The parameters considered were: the Rayleigh number 109–1012, the aspect ratio 20, 40 and 80 and the emmisivity 0.0–1.0. The percentage contribution of the radiative surface to the total heat transfer has a maximum value of 15.19% (Ra = 109, A = 20) with emissivity equal to 1.0 and a minimum of 0.5% (Ra = 1012, A = 80) with e* = 0.2. The average radiative Nusselt number for a fixed emissivity is independent of the Rayleigh number, but for a fixed Rayleigh number diminishes with the increase of the aspect ratio. The results indicate that the surface thermal radiation does not modify significantly the flow pattern in the cavity, just negligible effects in the bottom and top of the cavity were observed. Two different temperature patterns were observed a conductive regime Ra = 109 and a boundary layer regime Ra = 1012.