Laminar natural convection in a fully partitioned enclosure containing fluid with nonlinear thermophysical properties

摘要

The effects of a heat conducting partition on the laminar natural convection heat transfer and fluid flow were obtained by comparing the numerical and experimental results for a cubic enclosure without and with a partition. The two opposite vertical walls of the enclosure were isothermal at different temperatures. The working fluid was glycerol. The complete vertical partition, made of Plexiglass, was positioned in the middle of the enclosure. The visualizations of the velocity and temperature fields were obtained by using respectively, Plexiglass and liquid crystal particles as tracers.