Ecole Centrale Paris

Advanced Heat Transfer

December 12, 2011 Duration : 1h30 Examination without document. The computers are not authorized

Consider a uid of temperature T in contact with a vertical wall (length H) of constant temperature Tp > T . The natural convective ow is assumed to be stationary, incompressible and laminar. Moreover, the uid is characterized by a small Prandtl number P r 1

1. Assuming that the Boussinesq approximation is valid, show that the bidimensional boundary layer equations for stationary natural convection take the form u v + =0 x y u v v 2v +v = 2 + g T (T T ) x y x u T T 2T +v = 2 x y x (1) (2) (3)

In these equations (u, v ) are the velocity components in the horizontal (x) and vertical (y ) directions, respectively. 2. What is the dimension of the thermal expansion coecient T ? 3. Show that the dimensionless characteristic parameters of the problem are the Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers. 4. Using the scale analysis, show that the spatial thickness evolution of the thermal boundary layer T (y ) results from the balance between inertia i

and buoyancy phenomena and is given by T (y ) y (Ray P r)1/4 5. Deduce a scaling law for dimensionless heat transfer. 6. Instead of the constant temperature, we consider now that the wall is submitted to a constant ux density 0 . From the expression obtained in question 5 derive the scaling law associated to the new conguration. (4)

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