Three-Dimensional Natural Convection in an Enclosure With an Internal Isolated Vertical Plate

Natural convection in a cubic enclosure with an internal isolated heated vertical plate was investigated both experimentally and numerically. The internal plate was suspended under the lower surface of the enclosure top wall and electrically heated. The six enclosure walls were at a lower constant temperature. The plate average Nusselt number and the air temperature in the enclosure symmetry plane were experimentally determined in the range of Ra = 8 × 10⁴ to 5 × 10⁷. Numerical simulations of laminar natural convection in the same configuration were performed. The agreement between the test data and the numerically predicted values is reasonably good, with a maximum deviation in plate average Nusselt number of 12.3 percent and that in air temperature of 9.4 percent. Detailed temperature and velocity distributions in four cross sections were presented for the case of Ra = 6.57 × 10⁵.