Natural Convection in Shallow Cavities

Natural convection heat transfer in a rectangular enclosure is investigated numerically for low aspect ratio(height/width) cavities. Numerical results are obtained for aspect ratios between ${10}^{-2}$ and ${10}^0$, Rayleight numbers from ${10}^3$ to ${10}^7$ and Prandtl numbers from 10$^{-2}$ to 10$^3$. Results are compared with existing analytical and experimental results. A heat transfer correlation is developed to predict the mean Nusselt number as a function of the three governing dimensionless parameters: Rayleigh number, aspect ratio and Prandtl number.