Numerical study of laminar natural convection inside square enclosure with single horizontal fin

A numerical study for laminar natural convection inside a square enclosure with a single horizontal fin attached to its hot wall has been carried out. The enclosure horizontal surfaces are adiabatic, the left wall is hot while the right one is cold. The Prandtl number for the flow inside the enclosure is 0.71. A parametric study has been carried out to investigate the effect of Rayleigh number, fin length, conductivity ratio, thickness and position on heat transfer. The fin thickness showed negligible effect on the average Nusselt number for all values of fin conductivity ratios. The fin efficiency and temperature distribution were examined. The fin effectiveness was also studied and it was found that the fin effectiveness enhanced in general with the increase of fin length. Also, the maximum fin effectiveness was found at the lowest Rayleigh number for a given fin conductivity ratio. A correlation has been proposed for the relation between Nusselt number and the parameters of study.