Natural convection in inclined hemispherical cavities with isothermal disk and dome faced downwards. Experimental and numerical study

The objective of this work is to propose correlations of Nusselt–Rayleigh type for controlling the thermal state of electronic devices used in various engineering sectors such as thermoregulation of electronic devices, solar energy, aeronautics or safety and security. The assemblies are contained in hemispherical air-filled cavities whose disk is maintained isothermal and inclined at an angle varying between 90° (vertical position) and 180° (disk horizontal with isothermal dome oriented downwards). The numerical approach performed by means of the finite volume method for Rayleigh numbers varying between 104 and 5 × 108 is validated by measurements for various combinations of inclination angle and Rayleigh number. The results of this work show that the natural convective heat transfer are between 13% and 21% higher when the disk is maintained isothermal as compared to the case corresponding to imposed heat flux on the disk, for the same inclination angle and Rayleigh ranges. •Quantification of steady state natural convective heat transfer.•Nu–Ra correlations for large Ra range and Dirichlet-type boundary condition.•Hemispherical air-filled inclined enclosure with dome oriented downwards.•Thermal control of electronic devices for engineering applications.•Experimental and numerical approaches.