Heat transfer in a square cavity with a conducting partition on its hot wall

Natural convection in a square cavity with a conducting partition on its hot wall and with perfectly conducting horizontal walls is numerically studied. The divider length and the divider-to-fluid thermal conductivity ratio (Rk) are varied. For low values of Rk, reductions in heat transfer relative to the undivided cavity are obtained, especially for Rayleigh numbers of 104–105. This reduction is more significant when long dividers are used.