Turbulent natural convection in a vertical parallel-plate channel with asymmetric heating

Turbulent natural convection in a vertical parallel plate channel has been investigated both experimentally and numerically. The experimental channel is formed of a uniform temperature heater wall and an opposing glass wall. A fibre flow laser doppler anemometer (LDA) is used to measure velocity profiles along the channel. Simultaneous velocity and temperature profile measurements are made at the channel outlet. A commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code is used to simulate heat transfer and fluid flow in the channel numerically. The code is customised building in some low Reynolds number (LRN) k–ε turbulence models. The numerical method used in this study is found to predict heat transfer and flow rate fairly accurately. It is also capable of capturing velocity and temperature profiles with some accuracy. Experimental and numerical data are presented comparatively in the form of velocity, temperature, and turbulent kinetic energy profiles along the channel for a case. Correlating equations are obtained from the numerical results for heat transfer and induced flow rate and, are presented graphically comparing with other studies available in the literature.