Heat transfer enhancement in a baffled attic-shaped space

Abstract

To reduce the natural convection heat loss from attic-shaped spaces, many researchers used convection suppression devices in the past. In this chapter, a single baffle is used under the top tip to investigate numerically the natural convection heat loss in an attic-shaped enclosure, which is a cost-effective approach. The case considered in this chapter is one inclined wall of the enclosure which is uniformly heated while the other inclined wall uniformly cooled with adiabatic bottom wall. The finite volume method has been used to discretize the governing equations, with the QUICK scheme approximating the advection term. The diffusion terms are discretized using central differencing with second-order accuracy. A wide range of governing parameters is studied (Rayleigh number, aspect ratio, baffle length, etc.). It is observed that the heat transfer due to natural convection in the enclosure reduces when the baffle length is increased. Effects of other parameters on heat transfer and flow field are described in this study.