Turbulent natural convection heat transfer in rectangular enclosures using experimental and numerical approaches: A review

Natural convection is one of the most important modes of fluid flow and heat transfer. This paper presents a review of the research on turbulent natural convection in rectangular cavities using numerical and experimental techniques. In this review we have attempted to summarize the published papers on this topic with some interesting and important results. Numerous configurations of the enclosures with different initial and boundary conditions, heat source locations and radiative properties of medium and walls have been considered under the effects of various parameters such as the Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers, surface emissivity, cavity inclination angle, thermal properties, etc. Finally, some suggestions have been provided for future studies in the considered area.