Complete conjugate conduction convection and radiation problem for a heated block in a vertical differentially heated square enclosure

The complete conjugate heat conduction, convection and radiation problem for a heated block in a differentially heated square enclosure is solved by an operator-splitting pseudo-time-stepping finite element method. The main feature of the solution procedure is that the multi-phases are treated as a single computational domain with unknown interfacial boundary conditions. The temperature distribution in the heated block and in the enclosure fluid, together with the convective flow pattern are obtained simultaneously by the solution technique. The heated block has a resistant effect to the heat transfer between the differentially heated walls. When more heat is generated in the block, its emissivity has significant influence on the global flow. With increasing emissivity, the global convective flow decreases and the fraction of thermal radiation can be more than 30% of the total heat transfer.