Influence of variable property effects on natural convection flows in asymmetrically-heated vertical channels

The influence of variable property effects on the laminar air flow induced by natural convection in a vertical, asymmetrically-heated channel is investigated. A full-elliptic model that accounts for variations of viscosity and thermal conductivity with temperature and determines the density from the state equation, has been solved numerically for cases for which variable property effects are important, particularly for conditions for which flow reversals may appear. The corresponding numerical results are compared with those obtained from an alternative model in which all thermophysical properties are assumed to be constant and the Boussinesq approximation is used. It has been found that variable property effects have a strong influence, not reported in previous works, on the recirculation patterns, and may produce, for certain ranges of parameters that roughly coincide with those for which flow reversals exist, an increase in the mass flow rate induced in the channel.