Transient air flow and heat transfer in a triangular enclosure with a conducting partition

Numerical investigation is carried out for natural convection heat transfer in an isosceles triangular enclosure partitioned in the centre by a vertical wall with infinite conductivity. A sudden temperature difference between two zones of the enclosure has been imposed to trigger the natural convection. As a result, heat is transferred between both sides of the enclosure through the conducting vertical wall with natural convection boundary layers forming adjacent to the middle partition and two inclined surfaces. The finite volume based software, Ansys 14.5 (Fluent) is used for the numerical simulations. The numerical results are obtained for different values of aspect ratio, A   (0.2, 0.5 and 1.0) and Rayleigh number, Ra (105⩽Ra⩽108105⩽Ra⩽108) for a fixed Prandtl number, Pr  = 0.72 of air. It is anticipated from the numerical simulations that the coupled thermal boundary layers development adjacent to the partition undergoes several distinct stages including an initial stage, a transitional stage and a steady stage. Time dependent features of the coupled thermal boundary layers as well as the overall natural convection flow in the partitioned enclosure have been discussed in this study.