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Abstract

This thesis describes an experimental and theoretical study of natural convection heat transfer from a downwardfacing constant-heat-flux inclined flat plate in water.

The theoretical investigation, which comprised an analysis of the integrated boundary layer equations for steady two-dimensional laminar and turbulent flows, produced analytical solutions for a heated plate inclined at any angle of inclination.

Experiments, using two rigs, investigated heat transfer in the laminar, transition and turbulent regimes. The major outcome is a correlation for the local Nusselt Number over a range of modified Rayleigh Number from 10 6 to 10 15. In addition, boundary layer temperature and velocity profiles were measured using traversing probes and the flow outside the boundary layer was investigated using flow visualization techniques.