Mixed convection cooling combined with surface radiation in a partitioned rectangular cavity

The present paper reports numerical results of mixed convection and surface radiation within a horizontal ventilated cavity heated from below and provided with an adiabatic thin partition on the heated surface. Air, a radiatively transparent medium, is considered to be the cooling fluid. The effect of the governing parameters, which are the Reynolds number, 200 ⩽ Re ⩽ 5000, the baffle position from the inlet, 0.25 ⩽ Lb ⩽ 1.75, and the emissivity of the walls, 0 ⩽ ε ⩽ 0.85, on the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics is studied in detail. The maximum and mean temperatures, the ratio, QE/QL, of the heat quantities leaving the cavity through the exit, QE, and through the vertical cold left side, QL, are also presented versus the above controlling parameters.