Transient conjugate natural convection heat transfer in a differentially-heated square cavity with a partition of finite thickness and thermal conductivity

Abstract The transient conjugate natural convection heat transfer in a differentially-heated cavity with a partition of finite thickness and thermal conductivity are investigated numerically over the range of the Rayleigh number from 103 to 108, the thermal conductivity ratio of partition to that of fluid from 0.1 to 1000, and the dimensionless partition thickness from 0.05 to 0.2. An analysis of the obtained temperature contours and profiles, the time for the onset of stratification and the Nusselt number shows that the thermal conductivity ratio effect is significant only over the range of 0.1–10, when the role played by the partition changes, whereas the effect becomes negligible as the thermal conductivity ratio is very large (100 or beyond). It is also found that the scaling relations developed for the non-partitioned cavity are found to be applicable for the partitioned cavity. The results further show that the effect of the partition thickness on heat transfer is significant mainly when the thermal conductivity ratio is small.