Large Eddy Simulation of turbulent buoyancy-driven flow with alternating staggered heating walls

Unsteady turbulent natural convection flow and heat transfer in an open-ended channel with non-uniformly heated walls has been investigated. A two-wall-heated staggered arrangement in both vertical and tilted (45°) flow channels is analyzed to better understand the mechanism of perturbing the developing fluid and thermal boundary layers along the heated walls. Effect of different convective fluxes and fixed air gap distances on velocity and temperature fields is investigated. Large Eddy Simulation (LES) results demonstrate that better cooling enhancement is achieved in the two-wall-heated staggered arrangement with a higher chimney effect being experienced in the vertical configuration.