Influence of Intense Symmetric Heating and Variable Physical Properties on the Thermo-Buoyant Airflow Inside Vertical Parallel-Plate Channels

This paper deals with the steady, laminar, and two-dimensional natural convection inside vertical parallel-plate channels with isoflux heating. The main objective of this paper is to assess the joint influence of intense heating and variable physical properties on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of the upward air. To capture the physics of the problem, the discretized conservation equations are solved by the finite-volume technique in an aggrandized computational domain that is much larger than the physical domain. Representative numerical results based on the FLUENT computer program are presented in terms of local quantities such as air velocity and temperature profiles, as well as global quantities such as the average heat transfer coefficients and mass flow rates, all in response to the controlling geometrical and thermal parameters. A detailed comparison of these results is made against those produced by the simple model limited to constant physical properties.