Author(s)

G. Comini, G. Cortella & M. Manzan

Abstract

In this paper, we use a finite element discretization and a streamfunction- vorticity formulation to investigate natural convection in rectangular open cavities with the one vertical side heated and the two horizontal sides adiabatic. The numerical results concern streamfunction and temperature contours, and Nusselt number distributions for Pr = 1, several values of the Rayleigh number and two different aspect ratios. For the well documented square cavity problem, the average Nusselt numbers and the volumetric flow rates are compared with literature results. 1 Introduction Natural convection in open cavities has various applications ranging from passive solar heating to cooling of electronic packages. However, it has not been investigated as much as natural convection in enclosure

Keywords