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Combined natural convection and radiation in humid air bounded by isothermal vertical walls
F. Ben Nejma and K. Slim

This work deals with combined natural convection and radiation in a humid air flowing between two-isothermal vertical plates. The governing set of conservation equations in the dimensional form are solved numerically by the classical finite volume method. The radiative coupling problem is solved using the SNBCK4 model. Present solutions are compared with already known results from previous published works. An excellent agreement was obtained between results that validate the used computer code. It is shown that the existence of water vapor, even in small quantities, improves the heat transfer rate and increases considerably the evacuated flow rate. The influence of the wall’s temperature, the duct’s dimensions as well as the vapor molar fraction on the mean Nusselt number and flow rate is examined and discussed throughout this paper.

Keywords: Radiation, natural convection, Humidity, SNBCK model, discrete ordinates method DOM.

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