FLUID FLOW AND HEAT TRANSFER OF NATURAL CONVECTION ADJACENT TO UPWARD-FACING, INCLINED, HEATED PLATE (AIR CASE)

Experimental investigation have been performed on natural convection of air over an upward facing, inclined, heated plate. The special interests were paid to the turbulent transition and the heat transfer characteristics. The flow fields over the plate were visualized with smoke. The results showed that longitudinal vortices appear first in the laminar boundary layer when theta < 72 degrees. Then, the vortices detach from the plate and become distorted, and, finally, a fully turbulent state is accomplished at far downstream of the plate. Local Nusselt numbers from the plate were also measured. The results showed that the numbers deviate from the laminar values with the formation of the longitudinal vortices and, then, increase significantly with the detachment of the vortices. Based on these results, empirical correlations for the laminar and turbulent heat transfer by natural convection were proposed.