Laminar natural convection in a vertical channel

The developing flow in laminar free convection between parallel vertical plates was investigated. One of the plates was heated electrically; the second was also at a higher temperature than the surroundings due to passive heating from the first. The resulting asymmetric velocity distribution in the channel was determined using a laser Doppler anemometer. The measured velocity and temperature distributions were compared with the results of a numerical model of the flow, and found to display satisfactory agreement. (A)