Natural convective flow between a body and its spherical enclosure

This paper considers in detail the natural convective flow phenomena which occur between a body of relatively aribtrary shape and its spherical enclosure. This is accomplished by combining new experimental flow results with previously available data. New flow visualization results are presented for eccentric spheres and for vertical cylinders inside the spherical enclosure. By considering all the data combined, trends in the behavior of the convective phenomena are lessened allowing the establishment of a better analysis of enclosed body problems than is now possible. Although these results are strictly valid only for a spherical outer body, they give a preliminary indication of expected behavior for other shapes.