Question

What is meant by natural,forced and gravitional convection?

Answer 1

Natural convection is a mechanism, or type of heat transport, in which the fluid motion is not generated by any external source (like a pump, fan, suction device, etc.) but only by density differences in the fluid occurring due to temperature gradients. In natural convection, fluid surrounding a heat source receives heat and by thermal expansion becomes less dense and rises. The surrounding, cooler fluid then moves to replace it. This cooler fluid is then heated and the process continues, forming a convection current; this process transfers heat energy from the bottom of the convection cell to top. The driving force for natural convection is buoyancy, a result of differences in fluid density.

Forced convection is a mechanism, or type of transport in which fluid motion is generated by an external source (like a pump, fan, suction device, etc.). It should be considered as one of the main methods of useful heat transfer as significant amounts of heat energy can be transported very efficiently.

Gravitational convection is the convection (carriage) of contents of a fluid, such as mass or heat, by means of currents induced in the fluid by buoyancy forces which are dependent on gravity acting upon density differences within the fluid.