Numerical Simulation of Natural Convection in Open Cavities with Finite Element Method

A numerical simulation is presented for two-dimensional laminar buoyancy-driven flow in a square open-ended cavity. The simulations were accomplished for Rayleigh numbers between 103 and 107. The Boussinesq approximation has been used for this steady, two-dimensional model. The present study is focused on using of effective boundary conditions at the open side. Implementation of this representation reduces the complicated open-ended boundary conditions to a closed-ended domain. The numerical procedure is based on the CBS method. Numerical results are presented in terms of temperature profiles, stream functions and Nusselt numbers. The results are compared with recent publications and good agreement has been found.

Keywords:

Natural convection , CBS Method , open-ended cavity , Effective boundary conditions