Measurements of Laminar Mixed Convection Flow Adjacent to an Inclined Surface

Measurements of laminar mixed forced and free convection air flow adjacent to an upward and a downward facing, isothermal, heated inclined surface (at 45 deg) are reported. Local Nusselt number and the velocity and temperature distributions are presented for both the buoyancy assisting and the buoyancy opposing flow cases for a range of buoyancy parameter 0 ≤ ξ ≤ 5 (ξ = Gr_x/Re_x²). The measurements are in good agreement with predictions which define a laminar mixed convection regime for buoyancy assisting flow as 0.1 ≤ ξ ≤ 7, and for buoyancy opposing flows as 0.06 ≤ ξ ≤ 0.25 for this inclination angle of 45 deg. Simple mixed convection correlations for the local and average Nusselt numbers for inclined surfaces are also presented and they agree very well with predicted results. As expected, the local Nusselt number increases with increasing buoyancy parameter for assisting flows and decreases for opposing flows. For a given buoyancy parameter and Reynolds number, a downward facing surface provides essentially the same Nusselt number as the upward facing surface for the conditions examined in the experiment.