The characteristic length on natural convection from a horizontal heated plate facing downwards

Abstract

Natural convection from a downward facing horizontal heated plate was analyzed. An expression for the thickness of the thermal boundary layer was obtained in terms of Rayleigh number. Assuming this thickness as the characteristic length of the problem, the data published by other authors were modified and an equation for Nusselt number is presented. It was observed that this equation correlates the data more precisely than the commonly known equations in the literature that employ the ratio of the area to the perimeter or the shorter side of the plate as the characteristic length. It is concluded that taking the thermal boundary layer as the characteristic length of phenomenon is a proper approach and correlates all the data closely.