Heat transfer through partitioned enclosures

A closed-form model for the computation of heat transfer rates through the rectangular-partitioned enclosures is investigated. The rectangular-partitioned enclosures may contain solid or gas with or without a constant and uniformly distributed heat generation. The conduction in the enclosures is considered as two-dimensional, whereas one-dimensional heat transfer through the fin-type partition is assumed. Dimensionless heat flux plots are parametrically studied by varying the aspect ratio (L/H) of the enclosure, the ratio of thermal conductivities of the enclosure to the fin-type partition (k(a)/k(f)), the Blot number (beta(a) = h(a)L/k(a)), and the reduced partition thickness (t*/L). It is demonstrated through an example problem that there is a large error in using one-dimensional analysis, particularly at lower values of k(a)/k(f), and beta(a).