The conjugate conduction-natural convection heat transfer along a thin vertical plate with non-uniform internal heat generation

The steady state heat transfer characteristics of a thin vertical strip with internal heat generation is studied in this work. The nondimensional temperature distribution in the strip is obtained as a function of the following parameters: (a) the intensity and distribution of the internal heat sources, (b) the aspect ratio of the strip, (c) the longitudinal heat conductance of the strip and (d) the Prandtl number of the fluid. Both the thermally thin and the thick wall approximations are considered in this paper. The total thermal energy or averaged temperature of the strip is found to decrease as the influence of the longitudinal heat conduction effects in the strip decreases in the thermally thin wall regime. After reaching a minimum, it increases again in the thermally thick wall regime. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.