Numerical and experimental studies of natural convective heat transfer from vertical and inclined narrow isothermal flat plates

Abstract

Natural convective heat transfer from an isothermal narrow flat plate embedded in a plane adiabatic surface and inclined at moderate positive and negative angles to the vertical has been numerically and experimentally studied. The solution has the Rayleigh number, the dimensionless plate width, the angle of inclination, and the Prandtl number as parameters. Attention was restricted to a Prandtl number of 0.7. The numerical results have been obtained for Rayleigh numbers between 103 and 107 for dimensionless plate widths of between 0.3 and 1.2 and for angles of inclination between +45° and −45°. In the experimental study, results have been obtained for Rayleigh numbers between 4 × 102 and 105 for dimensionless plate widths of 0.4 and 2.5 and for angles of inclination between +45° and −45° to the vertical. Empirical equations for the heat transfer rate have been derived.