Relative Importance of Natural Convection and Surface Radiation in a Square Enclosure

Relative importance of convection and radiation in combined natural convection and surface radiation in a square cavity has been numerically studied with Ra ranging from 10° to 10. The results reveal that natural convection, compared with surface radiation, becomes more and more important as the scale goes down. This trend is more obvious at small scales (Ra<10). Moreover, surface emissivity and surface temperature have a significant effect on the relative importance of convection and radiation.