Effect of aspect ratio on natural convection in attics subject to periodic thermal forcing

Abstract

We consider the heat transfer through the attics of buildings under realistic (periodic) thermal forcing. The objective of this study is to investigate numerically the effect of the aspect ratio (height to base ratio) on the heat transfer through the attics. A fixed Grashof number 1.33 x 10^6 is considered for three different aspect ratios 0.2, 0.5 and 1.0. The Prandtl number is also fixed at 0.71 for air. The details of the numerical model as well as the flow structures and heat transfer data are presented