Laminar Convection on a Vertical Heated Plate Placed in a Chimney

This study deals with heat transfer from a vertical electrically heated plate, which is symmetrically placed in an experimental modular chimney of variable height. The chimney is made of Perspex in order to enable observation and recording of the flow. The inner horizontal cross-section of the chimney is a rectangle, 110 by 20 mm, where the larger dimension is along the plate and the smaller one is normal to it. Three main approaches are used in parallel: temperature measurement, flow visualization, and numerical simulation. Temperature measurements are done by thermocouples distributed inside the plate and through the chimney. Visualization is performed using the smoke of incense sticks, with video recording and consequent image processing. It indicates that the flow inside the chimney remains laminar under the conditions of the present study. Computer simulations of flow and temperature fields are performed in 3D and compared with the measurements and visualization.