Natural Convection of a Heat Generating Fluid in a Closed Vertical Cylinder: An Examination of Theoretical Predictions

Abstract

An analysis of the natural convection of a heat generating fluid in a semi-infinite vertical cylinder has been seen, in a previous publication, to give good agreement with experimental measurement. The analytical method used was that of solving the integrated equations of continuity, motion and energy, a technique which is frequently applied to internal natural convection problems and which has a reputation for being insensitive to thermal boundary conditions and the profile assumptions needed. The boundary conditions assumed for the analysis were not those of the experiment, and this paper is the result of an examination of the sensitivity of the prediction to the assumed conditions. A new analysis has been carried out with the boundary conditions of the experiment, and with profile assumptions closer to the experimental data. The new predictions show much less favourable agreement. It is concluded that the agreement obtained in the earlier analysis should not be used as a recommendation of the integral technique.

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