A NUMERICAL STUDY OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER FROM A WINDOW COVERED BY A SIMPLE PARTIALLY-OPEN PLANE BLIND

摘要

Heat transfer from the room-side surface of a window covered by a plane blind to the surrounding room has been considered. The window is at a higher temperature than the air in the room. There is an open gap between the blind system and the window at the top of the window and the effect of the size of this gap on the window-to-air heat transfer rate has been numerically examined. Three-dimensional flow has been considered. The flow has been assumed to be steady and laminar and it has been assumed that the fluid properties are constant except for the density change with temperature which gives rise to the buoyancy forces, this having been treated by using the Boussinesq approach. It has also been assumed that the flow is symmetrical about the vertical centre-plane of the window. The solution has been obtained by numerically solving the full three-dimensional form of the governing equations, these equations being written in terms of dimensionless variables. Results have only been obtained for a Prandtl number of 0.7. The effects of the other dimensionless parameters on the window Nusselt number have been numerically determined.