Natural convection on discrete heaters in a square enclosure with ventilation ports

Heat transfer by natural convection in a square enclosure with ventilation ports and discrete heat sources with constant heat flux has been studied. The study has been carried out by solving numerically mass, momentum and energy equations with the Boussinesq approximation. Firstly, optimum heater positions were obtained by maximizing the global conductance at different Rayleigh numbers. Heat transfer by natural convection was then studied with one, two and three heaters at their optimum positions. The results have revealed that the distribution of the heaters is not at equidistance but closer to each other near the bottom of the enclosure. The Nusselt number and the volume flow rate are increasing function of the Rayleigh number, the heater size and the number of discrete heaters. Their dependence on these parameters is equally important.