Turbulence models for natural convection flows along a vertical heated plane

The state of development of turbulent models is reviewed which are currently used in the computation of turbulent free convection flows along heated plane surfaces. Some experimental results recently obtained are also compared with corresponding computations in which existing turbulence models were also used. There is a lack of sufficient knowledge regarding the effects of buoyancy on the turbulence structure of flows such as plumes, buoyant jets, and thermal flow, and also buoyancy's participation and role in the corresponding transport processes. The reasons causing this inadequacy of necessary information is discussed. As a consequence, in computing buoyancy induced flows, turbulent transport models are adopted from forced convection or ordinary flows, mostly in modified forms.