Natural Convection and Surface Radiation in a Heated Wall, C-Shaped Fracture

The present study considers the coupled natural convection and surface radiation process through an open fracture of a solid wall facing a reservoir containing isothermal quiescent fluid (air). The fracture is modeled as a regular, C-shape path through the wall, with the vertical surface being heated and the horizontal ones adiabatic. The solid center section of the fracture is thermally participant inasmuch it can be heated or cooled by the natural convection process and by the radiation effect from the other surfaces of the fracture. The convection-radiation phenomenon is mathematically modeled and numerically simulated in a systematic parametric study of the thermal process as affected by changes in the fracture channel size, via changes in the size of the solid center section 0 < D < 1.0, surface emissivity 0 ≤ ε ≤ 1.0, Rayleigh number 10⁵ ≤ Ra ≤ 10⁸, and Pr = 0.71. Attention is given to the radiation shadowing effect caused by the center section of the fracture and of the interference effect, as the fracture channel changes in size, affecting the natural convection process through the fracture. An analytical prediction of the interference effect and an empirical correlation for predicting the total Nusselt number, both validated against the numerical results, are presented.