Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow of Natural Convection over Horizontal, Heated Plate.

Abstract

Experimental investigations have been carried out on a natural convection over an horizontal, heated plate facing upward. The plate was heated with a uniform heat flux and was placed in a large water tank. The flow over the plate and the temperature distribution of the test plate were visualized with dye and liquid crystal thermometry, respectively. The local heat transfer coefficients were also measured in the direction from the edge to the center of the plate in the range of the local, modified Rayleigh numbers from 102 to 1011. The results revealed that the transitional region appear in between the laminar boundary layer region near the plate edge and the irregular, disturbed flow region near the central part of the plate. The result of the local heat transfer coefficients also confirmed the existence of the above transitional region.