Heat transfer enhancement in cubical enclosures with vertical fins

Abstract Natural convection of air in a cubical enclosure with a thick partition fitted vertically on the hot wall is numerically investigated for Rayleigh numbers of 10 3 –10 6 . A three dimensional convective circulation is generated, in which the cold flow sweeps the fin faces and the hot wall, with low flow blockage. The combined contributions of these faces cause heat transfer enhancements over 40% at high Rayleigh numbers and thermal conductivity ratios ( R k ). These enhancements significantly exceed the ones obtained with horizontal fins. Even low R k values cause heat transfer enhancements, except at Ra  = 10 4 .