Transient Development of Stratification in a Partially Divided Enclosure

摘要

In passive solar heating of buildings or in compartment fires, we are concerned with the development of thermal stratification when two rooms at different temperatures are connected by the opening of a door. We have performed experiments and numerical calculations aimed at this application. The experiments consists of flow visualization and temperature measurements obtained when isolated halves of a tank containing water at two different temperatures are suddenly connected to allow flow between the zones. Two significant findings from this work are: (1) the presence of internal waves excited by the onset of flow through the doorway which have not normally been observed in past laboratory experiments, and (2) the equilibration time is found to be in general agreement with that predicted by a formula from a simple orifice model that we describe. Work is progressing on numerical simulations using two core stratification models connected by an orifice including entrainment in the neighborhood of the connection. 27 refs., 5 figs., 1 tab. (ERA citation 13:000562)