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Abstract
This article carries out a numerical, transient, two-dimensional analysis of natural convection in air in a divergent channel, characterized by two inclined flat plates heated at a uniform heat flux. The flow is assumed to be laminar and incompressible. Simulations allow to detect the complex structures of the flow inside and outside the channel. Results, in terms of temperature distributions, average Nusselt and Reynolds profiles, depending on time as a function of the divergence angle and channel spacing, are presented. Flow visualizations and stream function contours confirmed the disturbances inside the channel for the highest divergence angles (>5°). Correlations in terms of Nusselt numbers as a function of Rayleigh and Rayleigh modified numbers, ranging from 7.6 × 102 to 1.3 × 109 and from 30 to 8.2 × 108, respectively, were proposed. They were in very good agreement with the experimental relations.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by SUN with a 2008 grant and by MIUR with Articolo D.M. 593/2000 Grandi Laboratori “EliosLab.” The authors would also like to thank the reviewers for their comments and suggestions.