Transient air flow and heat transfer due to differential heating on inclined walls and heat source placed on the bottom wall in a partitioned attic shaped space

• Natural convection heat transfer in a partitioned triangular cavity is investigated.
• The boundary layer can be divided into an initial, transitional & steady stage.
• For higher Ra the multi-cellular flow structure is seen due to natural convection.

Numerical simulations are carried out to study the unsteady air flow and heat transfer in a partitioned triangular cavity of differentially heated from inclined walls and heat source placed at the bottom wall. The finite volume numerical method has been employed to solve the governing equations. The grid sensitivity test has been carried out and obtained results have been validated against experimental results. The dependency of several parameters on fluid flow and heat transfer is studied including Rayleigh number from 103 to 106, heater size from 0.2 to 0.6, heater position from 0.3 to 0.7 and aspect ratio from 0.2 to 1.0 with a fixed Prandtl number of 0.72 (air). A conductive partition of infinite conductivity is placed at the middle of the enclosure, which means that only heat can freely transfer between two fluid zones through the partition. Results are presented as a form of isotherms and streamlines. Also, heat transfer is presented as a form of Nusselt number. Both transient and steady states of solutions are presented in this study.