The interior natural convective heat transfer coefficient is computed for each interior surface as where is the characteristic length of the surface, is the indoor air temperature and are correlation coefficients. These parameters { , , } are identical to {1.823,-0.121,0.293} for vertical surfaces [Awbi 1999], {2.175,-0.076,0.308} for horizontal surfaces wherefore the heat flux is in the same direction as the buoyancy force [Khalifa 2001], and {2.72,-,0.13} for horizontal surfaces wherefore the heat flux is in the opposite direction as the buoyancy force [Awbi 1999]. The interior natural convective heat transfer coefficient is only described as function of the temperature difference. Similar to the thermal model for heat transfer through a wall, a thermal circuit formulation for the direct radiant exchange between surfaces can be derived [ Buchberg 1955, Oppenheim 1956].
[Awbi 1999]: H.B. Awbi, A. Hatton, Natural convection from heated room surfaces, Energy and Buildings 30 (1999) 233–244.