Radiation - natural convection heat transfer in an inclined rectangular enclosure

In this paper, the effects of surface radiation and inclination angle on heat transfer and flow structures in an inclined rectangular enclosure have been studied numerically. The governing differential equations were solved by a finite volume method. The SIMPLER algorithm was used for the velocity-pressure coupling, and the view factors were determined by a boundary element approximation and a Monte Carlo method. The vertical walls of the enclosure are heated with uniform different temperatures and the others are adiabatic. The enclosure is inclined and contains a centred inner body, for which the effects of thermal conductivity on heat transfer and air flow were analysed. It was found that the increase of the inclination angle reduces considerably the total heat transfer in the cavity, the effect of the inner body thermal conductivity k(ib) depends on the inclination angle phi, and the inner body reduces the heat transfer in the cavity especially in the presence of radiation exchange. (C) 2005 Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.