Papers Published

1. Lartigue, B. and Lorente, S. and Bourret, B., Multicellular laminar natural convection in vertical bent cavities, Heat and Technology, vol. 19 no. 1 (2001), pp. 51 - 60 .
   (last updated on 2007/04/06)

   Abstract:
   This study concerns the heat transfer inside double glazing windows which bend because of extreme climatic conditions (an important temperature difference leads to a pressure drop inside the cavity which results in the bending of the plates). Four reference plane cavities of aspect ratio A = 40 with Rayleigh numbers varying within the laminar flow regime are considered. In each case, the influence on the convective heat transfer of the vertical surfaces bending inward is studied. A two-dimensional numerical simulation based on a finite volume method is performed to investigate natural convection in the air-filled cavities. Important curvature creates two patterns in the enclosure. In the core, heat is transferred more by conduction whereas in the ends multicellular convection occurs. A coefficient of heat transmission K is defined. K strongly increases with curvature. These results will be used to supply correlation allowing to take into account the curvature in the determination of the global coefficient of heat transmission U-factor established from ASHRAE.

   Keywords:
   Laminar flow;Prandtl number;Pressure drop;Aspect ratio;Computer simulation;