Three-dimensional flow in a vertical finite rectangular enclosure which has a uniform heat flux applied over one heated vertical side wall and which has the opposite vertical wall cooled to a uniform temperature, the remaining walls of the enclosure all being adiabatic, has been numerically studied. It has been assumed that the flow is laminar and that the fluid properties are constant except for the density change with temperature which gives rise to the buoyancy forces. The governing equations expressed in dimensionless form have been solved using an iterative semi-implicit finite-difference method. Attention has mainly be given to the factors effecting this mean Nusselt number. The solution, in general, has the following parameters, the distance between the heated and cooled walls being taken as the reference length scale: the heat flux Rayleigh number, the Prandtl number and the horizontal and vertical aspect ratios of the enclosure. Because of the possible applications that motivated the study, results have only been obtained for a Prandtl number of 0.7. Most results have been obtained for a horizontal aspect ratio of 1 for vertical aspect ratios between 1 and 5 for heat flux Rayleigh number up to 10~6. The results have been used to determine the effect of the vertical aspect ratio on the mean Nusselt and in particular to determine the importance of three-dimensional effects on the results.
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