Experimental study of natural convection heat transfer through an aperture in passive solar heated buildings

The objective of this study is to obtain correlations between natural convection heat transfer through an aperture and temperature difference between the two rooms. A one-fifth similitude model of a two-room building is used. The model is filled with Freon gas to satisfy similarity of the experiment to full-scale conditions in air. The experimental apparatus and experimental techniques are explained. Experimental results are presented in terms of Grashof, Nusselt, and Prandtl numbers. The effects of the height, the width, and the vertical position of the apertures are investigated, as is the effect of the room volume.