The effect of thermal conductance of vertical walls on natural convection in a rectangular enclosure

This paper deals with the experimental results of natural convective heat transfer in a rectangular water layer bounded by vertical walls of different thermal conductance. The vertical walls were made of copper or stainless steel. A minimum was observed in the horizontal distribution of temperature near the heating wall since a secondary reverse flow occurred outside the boundary layer. For copper case the experimental results of Nusselt number agreed well with calculations under an isothermal wall condition. For stainless steel case, however, the measured values were lower than the calculations since a three-dimensional effect appeared in convection due to non-uniformity in wall temperature. (author)