Natural convection in a superposed air and porous layer when heated from below

A numerical and experimental study is performed to analyze the influence of natural convection on heat transfer in a composite system comprising a porous material heated from below and an air space situated above this. The numerical model is verified by conducting a number of experiments, on a model material consisting of polystyrene pellets of cylindrical shape, made in the Wind Box. This apparatus is a prototype and has been designed and developed at the Department of Building Physics. In designing the measuring process, calculation of the maximum systematic error has been a control parameter; this is less than 6%.