Natural Convection Flows in Parallel-Channel Systems

Abstract

An analysis was developed for natural circulation flows in vertical multiple-channel systems with nonuniform heat inputs. A three-channel configuration was investigated in detail both analytically and experimentally. The results showed the existence of a metastable regime in which two metastable flow patterns could occur for a given set of heat input rates. A third predicted flow pattern in this regime was shown to be unstable and, therefore, nonexistent in practice.