Laminar Natural Convection from an Isoflux Discrete Heater in a Vertical Cavity

December 2002 The Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, Volume 27, Number 2C.
149

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LAMINAR NATURAL CONVECTION FROM
AN ISOFLUX DISCRETE HEATER
IN A VERTICAL CAVITY
A.M. Al-Bahi
Aeronautical Engineering Department
A.M. Radhwan and G.M. Zaki *
Thermal Engineering Department
King Abdulaziz University
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

*Address for Correspondence:
King Abdulaziz University
P.O. Box 80204, Jeddah 21587
Saudi Arabia
e-mail: gzaki@kaau.edu.sa
A.M. Al-Bahi, A.M. Radhwan, and G.M. Zaki
150 The Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, Volume 27, Number 2C. December 2002
ABSTRACT
Laminar natural convection heat transfer in an air filled vertical square cavity
differentially heated with a single isoflux discrete heater on one wall with top and
bottom adiabatic surfaces is numerically studied. The coupled unsteady two-
dimensional conservation equations are solved by employing a forward time central
space implicit finite difference scheme. Numerical results reveal that the local Nusselt
number decreases along the length of the heater at constant value of the modified
Rayleigh number (Ra*) with slight enhancement near the trailing edge. The heater
location for the maximum heat dissipation rate is Rayleigh number dependent, which is
in agreement with previous experimental and numerical results. A correlation for this
location is obtained in addition to a relation for the dependence of the average Nusselt
number on the modified Rayleigh number and the location parameter (s/L). Average
Nusselt number variation for s/L = 0.25 to 0.75 and Ra* =10
3
to 10
6
is presented and
compared to the available correlations for full contact and discretely heated enclosures.
Keywords: natural convection, square enclosure, discrete, laminar

December 2002 The Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, Volume 27, Number 2C. 151
LAMINAR NATURAL CONVECTION FROM AN ISOFLUX DISCRETE HEATER
IN A VERTICAL CAVITY
1. INTRODUCTION
Natural convection in differentially heated enclosures plays an important role in many engineering applications, where
it provides a means of heat transfer without the need for fans or pumps. Cooling of electronic chips [1], ventilation of
buildings [2], thermal performance of solar collectors [3], and geophysics [4] are just some examples for engineering
applications where basically a cavity is differentially heated. The recent advances in electronic circuit technology as well
as the development of large integrated chips with increased heat dissipation rates made heat transfer a key factor in
circuit board design. Cooling of these boards is fundamentally addressed as convective heat transfer in enclosures [5, 6]
and has been extensively studied for the past two decades. These studies focus on the thermoconvection performance
within a cavity filled with a fluid and asymmetrically heated for different geometrical parameters (aspect ratio), fluid
properties (Prandtl number), heating mode (isoflux or isothermal), and a selected set of boundary conditions. The two-
dimensional convection within a square cavity heated on one vertical side and cooled on the opposite side [79] is
currently considered a reference or bench-mark solution for verifying other solution procedures. The problem has been
extended to establish additional bench-mark solutions for fluids with temperature dependent viscosity [10], fluids with
heat generation [11], and time dependent wall functions [12, 13].
Practically, Rayleigh number and geometric features characterize the heat transfer problem in cavities. Correlations in
simple power-law form have been developed, but the constants showed dependency on the method and accuracy of
solution. In Table 1 the correlation constants from Henkes and Hoogendoorn [14], Markatos and Pericleous [8], and
Barakos et al. [9] are presented along with their validity ranges. The importance of the convection phenomena in cavities
is revealed by the abundant studies reviewed by Ostrach [15] and Yang [16]. Studies of more relevance to circuit board
cooling are characterized by heating over a segment of the wall and referred to as discrete heating. The work of
Chu et al. [17] is one of the early contributions, where the temperature and velocity fields were computed for a range of
different parameters (aspect ratio from 0.4 to 5, l/W = 0.2 to 1 and Ra
L
10
5
). Though data was limited to isothermal
heating, the complex dependence of Nusselt number on Rayleigh number and other parameters apparently rules out
obtaining general correlations suitable for design. For example, the heater location for the maximum heat transfer rates
shifts towards the bottom of the enclosure as Rayleigh number increases. This effect is attributed to the large space
available for flow circulation when the heater is located close to the bottom. This circulation effect is more pronounced
at high Rayleigh number, Ra = 10
5
[17], and is confirmed by the experimental results of Turner and Flack [18] and for an
isothermal heater mounted on an isothermal heat sink, Radhwan and Zaki [19].
The effect of the discrete heater location has also been investigated for a single isoflux and isothermal heater, Refai
and Yovanovich [20, 21], for two dual heaters Chadwick et al. [22] and for multiple heaters, Keyhani et al. [23]. The
effect of the aspect ratio Ar on the heat transfer rate has also been studied. The results of Chu et al. [17], for Ar = 0.45,
showed that Nusselt number generally decreases for wide enclosures at constant Rayleigh number. This trend was
insignificant as reported by Sernas and Lee [24] for aspect ratios between 0.4 and 1. Although two-dimensional
convection has been investigated numerically and experimentally, development of a correlation that combines the basic
parameters (heater size, location, aspect ratio, and Rayleigh number) is a challenging problem because of the complex
parametric interdependency and the arbitrary choice of the characteristic length in both Rayleigh and Nusselt numbers.
The distance from the bottom of the enclosure [23], the width of the heater [25], the distance from the leading edge of
the discrete heater [22], and (l/Ar) [20, 21] are just examples.
Therefore, it is uncertain to interpret or extrapolate data and/or correlations of different investigators. The correlations
developed on basis of two-dimensional convection in cavities are summarized in Table 1 along with their validity range.
The preceding studies focus on two-dimensional convection flow in cavities with asymmetric discrete heating. Though
three-dimensional convection received less attention a few correlations are available [2628].
Table 1. Convection Correlations for Full Contact and Discretely Heated Enclosures.
Author [Ref] Study Configuration Heat transfer correlation Range of parameters
A
1
Square enclosure,
isothermal, full contact
heated wall at T
h
and
opposite wall at T
c

b
L
L
Nu a Ra = Ar = 1
Pr = 0.71
a b
Markatos and
Pericleous [8]
0.143 0.299 10
3
Ra
L
10
6

Henkes &
Hoogendooren [14]
0.304 0.25 10
3
Ra
L
10
6

Barakos et al. [9] 0.301 0.25 10
3
Ra
L
10
11

Turner and Flack [18] E Rectangular enclosure,
single and dual
isothermal heaters
Nu
L
= c
1
Gr
L
c2

l/L c
1
c
2

0.125 0.45 0.33
0.25 0.069 0.32
0.5 0.097 0.31
Ar = 1,
s/L = 0.5
510
6
Gr L 910
6
Pr = 0.71
Refai and Yovanovich
[20, 21]
A Rectangular enclosure,
isoflux or isothermal
single discrete heater,
results for L=W only
isoflux heater
2

Nu
l
= [
1.511
(
1.294
)
m

+ {0.21
0.288
(Ra*)
0.221

[1.261(0.7)
n

0.012
]
n
}
8.5
]
0.118

m = 0 for heater at the center
m = 1 for top or bottom positions
= l/L
l = (lW/L)
0 Ra*
l
< 10
6

4

n = 0 for 0.5 1
n = 1 for = 0.25
Pr = 0.72
Chadwick et al. [22] A&E Rectangular enclosure,
single and dual isoflux
heaters
2
1
c
y y
Nu c Gr

=
s/L c
1
c
2

0.2 0.526 0.192
0.5 0.454 0.199
0.8 0.438 0.193
Ar = 5
l/L = 5
0 .13310
4
< Gr
y
510
5
y measured from the
leading edge of the heater
Keyhani et al. [23] E 11 discrete isoflux
heaters mounted on an
adiabatic wall.
Nu
y
= 1.009 Ra
y
*
0.1805
Ar = 16.5
Pr ~150
6 12
* 10 5 10
y
Ra x < <

Ho and Chang [25] A&E Rectangular enclosure,
four isoflux discrete
heaters
w
Nu =
i i
* b c
i w

a Ra Ar

w = width of the enclosure
a
i
, b
i
, c
i
, see [25] Table 2
Ar = 110
Ra*
w
= 10
4
10
6

Pr = 0.71
1
A: Analytical or numerical study, E: Experimental
2
Another correlation is available for isothermal surfaces [21]
The objective of the present paper is to study the dependency of the heat transfer performance on the heater location
for a reference case of a single isoflux discrete heater in a square enclosure and to correlate the results. The effect of
location on the spatial Nusselt number variation along the vertical heat sink is also studied. The time-dependent two-
dimensional mass, momentum and energy conservation equations are solved numerically. Second order implicit finite
difference approximation with alternate direction scheme (ADI) is employed to solve the unsteady state equations.
2. MATHEMATICAL MODEL
The configuration under consideration is shown schematically in Figure 1. It is an enclosure of height L and width W
(aspect ratio Ar = L/W). The horizontal surfaces are assumed adiabatic while the vertical right wall is a heat sink at a
constant temperature T
c
.

Figure 1. Schematic of enclosure configuration and the solution grid.
The left vertical wall has a discrete flush-mounted heater of length l, at a distance s from its center to the bottom of the
cavity. The heater represents a local isoflux heat source, while the remainder of the wall is adiabatic. The fluid inside the
enclosure is assumed Newtonian and incompressible with constant properties except for the density in the buoyancy term
of the Y momentum equation (Boussinesq approximation). For two dimensional laminar free convection flow, by
eliminating the pressure between the X and Y momentum equations (by cross differentiation) the mass, momentum, and
energy equations are presented in the dimensionless stream function, vorticity, and energy formulation as:
2 2
2 2
X Y

+ =

(1)
2 2
2 2
*
Pr
Ra
U V
X Y X X Y

+ + = + +

(2)
2 2
2 2
1
Pr
U V
X Y X Y
| |

+ + = +
|
|

\ .
. (3)
The initial and boundary conditions are:
initial conditions:
At = 0, 0 X 1, 0 Y 1
U = V = 0, = 0, = 0
adiabatic horizontal surfaces:
at 0 < X < 1, Y = 0 and Y = 1
U = V = 0,
Y
= 0, = 0
isothermal wall:
at 0 Y 1, X = W/L = 1/Ar
U = V = 0, = 0, = 0
heat source wall:
at (s l/2)/L Y (s + l/2)/L, X = 0
U = V = 0,
X
= 1, = 0
and at 0 Y < (s l/2)/L, (s + l/2)/L < Y 1 and X = 0
U = V = 0,
X
= 0, = 0
The dimensionless variables are defined in the nomenclature. The modified Rayleigh and Nusselt numbers are based
on the enclosure width W, for a square enclosure (Ar = 1)W = L.
The local heat transfer rate is obtained from the energy balance on the heater section and along the cold isothermal
wall, from which Nusselt numbers are:
0
h
X=
qL 1
Nu =
k T
=

l
1
Y l
2
. (4)
Local Nusselt number at the isothermal wall is:
1
c
X=
Nu
X
0 Y 1. (5)
The average Nusselt number along the discrete heater length is:
h
qL
Nu
k T
=
. (6)
A forward time central space implicit finite difference scheme is used to solve the governing equations. The numerical
solution is obtained by employing a stabilizing correction splitting method to improve convergence. This splitting (ADI)
scheme has been extensively used in its original form, Peaceman and Rachford [29] and in its generalized form [3032].
The governing equations were discretized on a nonuniform 4141 grid (Figure 1), in which the mesh is finer near the
vertical walls to better resolve the hydrodynamic and thermal boundary layers there. The computation of the stream
function, the temperature, and the vorticity were carried out using second order difference approximations. Central
difference relations were used for the diffusion terms of the vorticity transport equation, while the convective term was
presented by an upwind difference scheme [33]. No slip boundary conditions were imposed to solve the stream function
equation. A second order central difference approximation was used to obtain the second derivatives of the stream
function at the boundaries, which are necessary to have an acceptable solution of the vorticity equation. The values of
outside the computational domain (image points) were calculated using Taylor second order expansion. In particular for
equal nodes grid this technique leads to Koskova condition [34]. The steady state solution was obtained as the limit of
the transient calculations. The stream function equation, which is highly coupled with the vorticity equation, was
satisfied for every time step applying an iterative procedure. Five iterations were found to be sufficient for a
dimensionless time step of 510
4
. The criterion for convergence was examined for each variable through the normalized
residual R, such that:
1
, ,
,
,
,
Max
Max
n n
i j i j
i j
n
i j
i j
R
+
, (7)
where is any variable (, , or ) and
is the accuracy limit set to 210

8
for Ra* = 10
6
with a nonuniform 41 41
grid and n is the iteration level.
The developed computer code for the present problem has been verified by performing calculations for natural
convection in a square enclosure and comparing the results to previous bench-mark solutions of de Vahl Davis [7],
Markatos and Pericleous [8], and Radhwan and Zaki [19]. The streamlines and isotherm patterns obtained by the present
solution procedure were found to be in good agreement with the published data [7, 8, and 19]. Details of this comparison
for which the boundary conditions are of the first kind ( = 1 at X = 0 and 0 at X = 1) are not presented for brevity.
Instead, the values of the average Nusselt number are given in Table 2. The difference between the present results and
the average of the three solutions is within 1%. Further validation was carried out for an air filled rectangular enclosure
with an isoflux flush mounted single heater, Ar = 5, s/L=0.5, l/L = 0.133, and Gr = 5.1610
5
[22]. The present isotherms
and streamlines are in agreement with those obtained by the SIMPLER algorithm [22], as seen in Figure 2. Comparing
local values of and was not performed as they were not given in [22]. For this validity test a 6161 nonuniform grid
was used.

Present Chadwick [22]
Figure 2. Verification of the present solution as compared to that of Chadwick [22],
L/W = 5, l/L = 0.13, and Gr = 5.1610
5
.
Table 2. Average Nusselt Number for an Air Filled Square Cavity with Isothermal Vertical Walls
(Verification of Present Solution Algorithm).
Average Nusselt number, Nu
L

Ra
L

de Vahl Davis [7] Markatos [8] Radhwan [19] Present
10
3
1.118 1.108 1.149 1.114
10
5
4.519 4.43 4.515 4.434

3. NUMERICAL RESULTS
The developed code is used to study the thermal convection in a vertical square enclosure (Ar = 1) filled with air
(Pr = 0.71). The buoyancy assisted flow is created by a flush-mounted strip heater, l/L = 0.125 fixed at s/L=0.25, 0.5, and
0.75 (Figure 1). These parameters are selected to establish basic data for isoflux thin discrete heater in a square
enclosure, a condition that has not been considered in previous studies (Table 1) and to focus on the effect of heater
location on local and average heat transfer rates.
3.1. Isotherms and Streamlines
Figure 3 shows the effect of heater location on the development of isotherms and streamlines for Ra*=10
3
and 10
6
.
The computed isotherms for all locations are clustered near the hot surface indicating boundary layers build up. The
parallel isothermal lines away from the heater at low Rayleigh number, Ra*=10
3
, indicate conduction dominated mode
of heat transfer, though convection is developed in the layer adjacent to the heating strip. The streamlines for all cases
form a single cell filling the cavity and the effect of the heater location causes distortion of this cell. The form of
distortion and the maximum value of are location and Rayleigh number dependent. The magnitude of
max
determines
the extent of circulation, as seen in Figure 3, the highest value is obtained near the bottom (s/L=0.25) and the lowest
value is at s/L= 0.75. This result is in agreement with the previous studies where maximum heat transfer is obtained for
heaters placed close to the bottom of the enclosure.
As seen from the isotherms in Figure 3, at Ra*=10
3
, weak convection is confined in the left side zone where the heat
source is mounted. The parallel vertical isotherms for all heater positions reveal that the heat transfer across the
enclosure is conduction dominated in particular within the region affected by the cold wall. Increase in Rayleigh number,
up to Ra*=10
6
, causes the convection heat transfer to be more confined along the heated vertical wall and the upper
section of the cold wall where the isotherms cluster along these two sections irrespective of the heater location.
The temperature variation in the X direction gives an indication to the mode of heat transfer. The temperature
distributions at the mid-height of the heater for the different locations are shown in Figure 4 for Ra*=10
3
and 10
6
. The
dimensionless surface temperature, (at X = 0), which is inversely proportional to Nusselt number (Equation (4))
decreases with increasing Rayleigh number. The figure depicts the change of the heat transfer mode along the horizontal
plane, where at Ra*=10
3
, the temperature gradient decreases to a constant linear distribution at X 0.3. At this distance
the buoyancy effects diminish and conduction is dominating. On the other hand at Ra*=10
6
the gradient decreases to
reach nearly zero near the center of the enclosure width. This trend is the same for all heater locations and has been
observed in previous studies for isothermal full contact heaters [9] and isoflux discrete heater [20]. For the laminar
convection, Ra*=10
6
, at s/L =0.75 is the highest compared to other locations indicating less efficient heat transfer
because of the limited space for circulation. The effect of location for low Ra* is different (Figure 4), where is the
highest at s/L = 0.25 indicating poor local heat transfer along the mid-plane. The symmetrical isotherms and streamlines
at s/L = 0.5 with |
max
| = 0.14 indicates relatively uniform heat transfer across the enclosure. In general the horizontal
mid-plane temperature variation at X=0 is an indication to the dominating heat transfer mechanism but the effectiveness
of buoyancy driven cooling is determined by the magnitude of Nusselt number, which is discussed in the following
section.
14 . 0
max
a 13 . 0
max
12 . 0
max

46 . 11
max
9
max
7
max

R
a
*

=

1
0
3
R
a
*

=

1
0
6
s/L = 0.25 s/L = 0.5 s/L = 0.75

Figure 3. Isotherms and streamlines dependency on the heater location and Rayleigh number.

Figure 4. Horizontal temperature variation across the enclosure at the middle height of the heater for different location parameter,
s/L and Rayleigh numbers.
3.2. Nusselt Number
The local Nusselt number variations along the heating element, Nu
h
, and the cold wall, Nu
c
(at X = 1), are shown in
Figure 5. The variation of Nu
h
along the heater length shows that, at high modified Rayleigh numbers (Ra* = 10
6
), the
highest heat transfer rate takes place at the leading edge of the heating strip regardless of its position. This effect is less
pronounced at low Ra*. Though the local Nusselt number decreases from a maximum at the leading edge towards the
trailing edge, there is a slight enhancement in the local Nusselt number at the trailing edge. Results of Heindel et al. [26]
showed a similar trend for isoflux discrete heaters for both two and three dimensional analysis. This may be explained as
a result of disturbances introduced by mixing of hot air leaving the heater edge and the relatively cool air in the adiabatic
zone beyond the trailing edge. The predicted Nu
h
variation along the heater is in agreement with the experimental data of
Chadwick et al. [22] although this trailing edge effect does not appear in their experimental results.

Figure 5. Local Nusselt number variation along the isoflux discrete heater and the isothermal opposite cold wall.
The corresponding variation of Nu
c
along the vertical heat sink is shown in the same figure for Ra* = 10
3
and 10
6
for
three heater locations. For low values of Ra*, Nu
c
is low and nearly uniform indicating a dominating conduction regime.
Even though, Nu
c
is slightly affected by the heater location, where at s/L = 0.25 Nusselt number Nu
c
is slightly higher at
the bottom of the enclosure (Nu
c
= 0.199 at Y 0 compared to the value of Nu
c
= 0.164 at Y = 1). This trend is reversed
when the heater is located at Y = 0.75, for which Nu
c
= 0.134 at Y 0 and Nu
c
= 0.184 at Y = 1. Increase in Rayleigh
number changes this distribution where the effective cooling zone with high Nu
c
is concentrated in the upper section of
the cooling wall irrespective of the heater position. The value of Nu
c
along the cold vertical wall decreases towards the
bottom (downstream direction). This trend is a direct effect of the boundary layer growth along the hot or cold walls
where Nu
h
starts high at the heater leading edge and decreases monotonically towards the trailing edge. The same occurs
during cooling, noting that the flow is downwards along the cooling section.
Figure 6 illustrates the dependency of the average Nusselt number, h Nu on the heater location with Ra* as a
parameter. It is seen that the position for maximum Nusselt number shifts towards the bottom as Rayleigh number
increases (s/L = 0.6 at Ra* = 10
4
and s/L = 0.39 at Ra* = 10
6
). This result extends the previous findings of Chu et al.
[17] and Turner and Flack [18] for isothermal heaters in a square enclosure and the data of Chadwick et al. [22] for an
isoflux heater in a rectangular enclosure. The loci of the maxima of NuRa* variation in Figure 6 presents the relation
between s/L for maximum cooling location and Ra*. In an effort to find out this relation, the present data is reproduced
for Ra* 10
4
in Figure 7 and fitted to
max.Nu
s
L
= 1.396 Ra*
0.093
10
4
< Ra* 10
6
(8)
which is valid for isoflux discrete heater in a square enclosure. The data of Chu et al. [17], for the isothermal discrete
heater, is modified for Ra* = Ra Nu and plotted on the same figure, which shows the same trend as that of Equation (8).
The effect of Rayleigh number on the overall heat transfer rate from the discrete heater is presented in Figure 8. The
computed average Nusselt number h Nu is nearly constant up to Ra* 10
4
beyond this limit the average Nusselt number
varies with Ra*
n
. The figure shows that the gradient of the present data is within the range of the previous correlations
for full contact isothermal heat source [9, 14] and isoflux heater [22] (Table 1). By employing regression analysis the
average Nusselt number has been correlated with Ra* for the heater to fit a power-law form as:
*
n
h Nu a Ra = . (9)
The coefficients a and n showed dependency on the location parameter, Table 3.
The exponent n is slightly higher than the average found by Ho and Chang [25] (0.1940.206) but the average of the
three values is within that of [22] (n = 0.215). To include the effect of the location ratio on Nusselt number a relation is
suggested so that the first derivative for maximum h Nu leads to Equation (8). Fitting the data to the suggested form
yields:
2
0.307 0.093
* *
0.973 0.358 h
s s
Nu Ra Ra
L L
(
| | | |
= (
| |
\ . \ . (

. (10)

Figure 6. Effect of heater location and modified Rayleigh number on the average Nusselt number along the heater.
1E+4 1E+5 1E+6
Ra*
0.1
1.0

s
/
L

Equation 8
present Eq. 8
present isoflux heating
Chu et al [17] isothermal heating

Figure 7. Dependence of heater location for maximum rate of heat transfer on Rayleigh number.
1E+3 1E+4 1E+5 1E+6 1E+7
Ra*
1
10
N
u
h
s/L = 0.25
s/L = 0.5 present
s/L = 0.75
Refai [20,21] s/L = .5
Chu et al. [17] s/L = .5
full contact isothermal heater (Table.1)
Henkes and
Hoogendoorn [14]
Barakos et al [9]

Figure 8. Average Nusselt number variation, compared to available correlations.
Table 3. Coefficients of Equation (9).
s/L a n
0.25 0.488 0.227
0.5 0.582 0.217
0.75 0.609 0.201
Equation (10) predicts the average Nusselt number for a single discrete isoflux heater including the shifting of the peak
Nusselt number towards the bottom with Rayleigh number increase. The correlation covers the present range of
parameters with maximum deviation of 19%.
In general discrete heating gives higher Nusselt number values compared to full contact heating, Figure 8. The results
of Chu et al. [17] were used to obtain average Nusselt numbers for the present configuration l/L = 0.125 and s/L = 0.5.
It is seen that the average Nusselt number for the discrete isothermal heater is on the average 38% higher than the
corresponding value for full contact isothermal heater, at Ra* = 210
5
. Furthermore the present results for isoflux
discrete heater is 20% higher than those for isothermal heater under the same conditions (Ra* = 210
5
). The only
correlations available for single isoflux discrete heater that includes the effect of heater size l/L are those of Refai and
Yovanovich [20, 21], Table 1. Unfortunately the correlation is limited to l/L > 0.25 and to a narrow range of Rayleigh
number, Ra*
L
10
6
(l/L)
4
. The correlation has been modified where the characteristic length L replaces (l/Ar), m = 1, and
n = 1 to present the case for which the heater is located at the center, s/L = 0.5.
Figure 8 shows that Refai and Yovanovich [20, 21] correlation under predicts the present results by 10 to 19%. This
difference may be attributed to extending the range of validity of the correlation and/or using a refined grid in the present
study (stretched 4141 grid) relative to the 2020 uniform node distribution. However, Refai and Yovanovich
correlation shows an interesting change in gradient at Ra* = 510
4
which marks the onset of convection. This transition
occurs at Ra* = 10
4
for the present solution at s/L = 0.5. The correlation of Turner and Flack [18] (Table 1) is developed
for a Grashof number range beyond the present laminar flow analysis, for which Ra* 10
6
. For a heater size l/L = 0.125
and Ar = 1 the constants are c
1
= 0.045 and c
2
= 0.33. These give values of Nu
L
between 7.3 and 8.8 for
2.610
7
Ra* 5.710
7
. These values are less than those expected by the present study, therefore, extrapolation of
Turner and Flack correlations [18] for isoflux heating is not recommended but the correlation of Refai [20] is the closest
to the present conditions.
4. CONCLUSION
Natural convection in an air filled discretely heated square cavity is numerically studied. The heat source is a flush
mounted isoflux strip heater (l/L = 0.125) at different locations (s/L = 0.250.75) while the heat sink is a vertical
isothermal wall. The top and bottom surfaces are adiabatic. The time dependent two-dimensional conservation equations
of mass, momentum, and energy are solved using finite difference scheme. After validation of the method, the
streamlines and isotherms for different heater locations and Rayleigh numbers (10
3
10
6
) were obtained. The results
showed that for small heaters the flow is characterized by a single circulation cell, which prolongs to an elliptical shape
at high Rayleigh numbers (Ra* = 10
6
) with distortion towards the location of the heater. At low Ra* (10
3
10
4
), heat
transfer by conduction is dominating and Nusselt number is nearly constant.
The local Nusselt number decreases along the heater length from the leading edge with slight enhancement at the
trailing edge. This is explained as a result of transition of moving fluid from a hot region at the heaters edge to a
relatively colder fluid at the adiabatic region next to the heater. In addition the heater location for maximum heat transfer
was found to be Rayleigh number dependent and a new correlation is developed for this optimum location. Furthermore
a correlation for the average Nusselt number in terms of the modified Rayleigh number and the heater location parameter
has been obtained. The available correlations for full contact and discrete heating in enclosures are presented and
compared to the present results.
NOMENCLATURE
Ar Aspect ratio = L/W
c
p
specific heat at constant pressure, Ws/K kg
g gravitational acceleration, m/s
2
Gr Grashof number gTL
3
/
2

k thermal conductivity, W/m K
l heater length, m
l characteristic length (Table 3), lW/L
l
1, 2
dimensionless distance = [s l/2]/L
L enclosure height, m
Nu local Nusselt number, qW/kT
Nu average Nusselt number, / qW k T
Pr Prandtl number, c
p
/k
q heat flux, W/m
2

R normalized residual
Ra Rayleigh number, gTL
3
/()
Ra* modified Rayleigh number gqL
4
/(k)
s distance to center of the heater, m
t time, s
T temperature difference = T T
c
, K
T Temperature, K
u, v velocity components in the x and y directions
U, V dimensionless velocity components U = uL/, V = vL/
W width of enclosure, m
x, y space coordinates in Cartesian system
X, Y dimensionless Cartesian coordinates, x/L, y/L
y distance measured from the heater leading edge, m.
Greek Symbols
thermal diffusivity, k/
c
c
p
, m
2
/s
coefficient of volumetric thermal expansion, K
1

ratio between heater length to enclosure height, l/L
dimensionless temperature, k(T T
c
)/qL
dynamic viscosity, kg/m s
kinematic viscosity, m
2
/s
variable density =
c
[1 (T T
c
)], kg m
3

c
density at T
c
, kg m
3

dummy variable
non-dimensional stream function =
d
/
non-dimensional vorticity =
d
L
2
/
non-dimensional time,= t/L
2

Subscripts
c cold surface
d dimensional
h hot surface
L based on enclosure length
Superscripts
average value
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Paper Received 3 February 2002; Revised 25 June 2002; Accepted 23 October 2002.

Laminar Natural Convection from an Isoflux Discrete Heater in a Vertical Cavity

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December 2002 The Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, Volume 27, Number 2C.

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