An experimental investigation of two-dimensional steady natural convection cooling in a vertical open top cavity with conducting side walls of finite thickness is presented. The various heat-generating discrete heaters are located on one vertical wall...
An experimental investigation of two-dimensional steady natural convection cooling in a vertical open top cavity with conducting side walls of finite thickness is presented. The various heat-generating discrete heaters are located on one vertical wall of the cavity. When each heater dissipates different amount of power, the purpose of the work is to obtain the optimal array condition of the heaters. The four cases of non-uniform heating conditions are considered. The temperature fields in the cavity were visualized by the interferometer and local temperatures of the vertical wall were measured by thermocouples. The heaters were arranged in two configurations: flush-mounted on a vertical wall or protruding from the wall about 4.5 mm. The vertical wall was constructed out of copper or epoxy-resin sheet. Experiments have been conducted for air with constant Prandtl number(Pr=0.7), the aspect ratio of 4.6, 7.5, 9.5, power input in the range of 0.9 W ~ 4.2 W. For the enhancement of the cooling effectiveness, the upper and lower of vertical wall would give the better position for the heaters of higher heat flux.