In this article, a simplified model is developed to predict the radiative and convective heat transfer in a complex fenestration system consisting of a Venetian blind located adjacent to an indoor window glazing. Empirical correlations for natural convection in an asymmetrically heated channel and an isolated flat plate are used in this one-dimensional simplified model. In this simplified model, an energy balance is performed at the blind surface using a mean blind temperature. The radiative heat exchange between the blind, window and room is calculated using a four surface grey-diffuse model, which is coupled to the convective heat transfer. The simplified model has been developed using experimental and numerical data from the literature. Sample results are presented that illustrate the effect of blind slat angle, blind-to-window spacing and absorbed solar heat flux on the heat transfer at the window surface.
Free convection in a vertical channel with antisymmetrical heating is a special case that has not received a great deal of attention in the literature. Antisymmetrical heating is where the hot wall is heated above the ambient temperature by the same amount that the cold wall is cooled below the ambient, giving equal but opposing buoyancy forces inside the channel. An experimental model was constructed to study antisymmetrical heating inside an isothermally heated vertical channel. Flow visualization was used to obtain the flow field and laser interferometry was used to obtain the temperature field. Based on the measured temperature field, the local and average Nusselt numbers were determined, which were compared with numerical predictions obtained using ansys fluent. A range of Rayleigh numbers were studied for air with a Prandtl number of 0.71. The results show that an open-ended channel with antisymmetrical heating has some similarities to a tall enclosure. The average convective heat transfer can be approximated using an existing correlation for a tall enclosure from the literature.
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