A Numerical Study of Local and Average Natural Convection Nusselt Numbers for Simultaneous Convection Above and Below a Uniformly Heated Horizontal Thin Plate

Numerical simulations were conducted to determine local and average natural convection Nusselt numbers for uniformly heated horizontal plates with convection occurring simultaneously from upper and lower surfaces. Plate width and heating rate were used to vary the modified Rayleigh number over the range of 86 to 1.9 × 10⁸. Upper surface Nusselt numbers were found to be smaller than corresponding lower surface Nusselt numbers. The local Nusselt number was largest at the plate edge and decreased towards the plate center for both surfaces. This variation followed approximately a minus 1/3-power law variation with the non-dimensionalized x coordinate on the upper surface for modified Rayleigh numbers greater than 10⁴, and a minus 1/9-power law variation on the lower surface for all modified Rayleigh numbers. Comparative simulations were also performed for upward and downward facing uniformly heated plates (single sided convection). For these cases, Nusselt numbers on the upward facing plates were larger than for downward facing plates.