Abstract
An experimental investigation into air natural convection on an inclined discretely heated plate with a parallel shroud below has been carried out. Three discrete strips were located in different positions on the heated wall. The distance between the walls, b, has been changed in the range 12.3–40.0 mm and two values of the heat flux dissipated by the heaters have been taken into account. Several inclination angles between the vertical and the horizontal have been tested. The wall temperature distribution as a function of the channel spacing and the inclination angle, the source heat flux, the number and the arrangement of the heat sources is presented. Dimensionless maximum wall temperatures are correlated to the process parameters. Flow visualized patterns of the air are also reported. Local Nusselt numbers are evaluated and correlated to the local Rayleigh numbers and the tilting angles. The analysis shows that for angles not greater than 85°, the greater b does not involve the smaller wall temperatures, whereas at greater tilting angles (> 85°) there is an opposite tendence. These behaviors are confirmed by flow visualization at angles equal to 85° and 90° and b = 20.0 and 32.3 mm. The exponent of monomial correlations among local Nusselt and Rayleigh numbers are in the 0.23–0.26 range.
