An analytical investigation of the physical dimensions of natural convection flow on a vertical heated plate

Abstract

Analytical results of the boundary layer of natural convection air flow on a vertical heated plate are presented for both isothermal and constant heat flux plates. We investigate the effects of the heat flux and the temperature of the plate on the development of the physical boundary layer along the plate. The ranges of temperature and heat flux examined are 10°C ≤ T ≤ 100°C and 50 ≤ qP ≤ 600 (w/m2) respectively. The results show that the variation in the plate temperature has a significant effect on the transition of air on the isothermal plate, and the difference between the temperature of air and plate has more effect on the transition especially when TP ≤ 60°C. In addition, the temperature of the flow on the constant heat flux plate shows a little effect on the transition, where the transition mostly depends on the heat flux. At qP = 220 (w/m2) and Ta=29°C with declining the temperature of air by 69%, the critical height declines by 3.8%. The analytical results are compared with different previous experimental studies for different operation conditions, where a satisfactory agreement is achieved