Influence of baffle location on natural convection in a partially divided enclosure

A numerical study has been made of natural convection in a square partitioned enclosure with two offset baffles and perfectly conducting horizontal end walls. The study is made for three different baffle locations and two different conductivities at Rayleigh numbers of 10/sup 4/, 10/sup 5/, and 3.55 X 10/sup 5/. The results clearly demonstrate that baffle position has a significant effect on the heat transfer. As the top baffle is moved toward the cold wall and the bottom baffle toward the hot wall the average Nusselt number value decreases, as does the tendency of the flow to separate behind the baffles. At high Rayleigh numbers the tendency for separation increases and the average Nusselt number value decreases with increasing baffle conductivity. The influence of baffle conductivity on the local Nusselt number distribution increases as the top baffle is moved toward the cold wall and the bottom baffle toward the hot wall. For all baffle locations, the average Nusselt number is smaller than the corresponding value in an enclosure with no baffles