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Three‐dimensional simulations of natural convection in a sidewall‐heated cube
Author(s) -
Fusegi Toru,
Hyun Jae Min,
Kuwahara Kunio
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in fluids
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1097-0363
pISSN - 0271-2091
DOI - 10.1002/fld.1650130704
Subject(s) - natural convection , enclosure , finite volume method , rayleigh number , control volume , upwind scheme , mechanics , mathematics , boundary value problem , rayleigh scattering , computation , grid , compressibility , heat transfer , geometry , physics , mathematical analysis , computer science , algorithm , optics , telecommunications , discretization
A high‐resolution, finite difference numerical study is reported on three‐dimensional natural convection of air in a differentially heated cubical enclosure over an extensive range of Rayleigh number from 10 3 to 10 10 . The maximum number of grid points is 122 × 62 × 62. Solutions to the primitive variable formulation of the incompressible Navier‐Stokes and energy equations are acquired by a control‐volume‐based procedure together with a higher‐order upwind‐differencing technique. The field characteristics at large‐time limits are examined in detail by state‐of‐the‐art numerical visualizations of the three‐dimensional results. The emergence of the well‐defined boundary layers and the interior core at high Rayleigh numbers is captured by elaborate numerical visualizations. Both the similarities and discrepancies between the three‐ and two‐dimensional computations are pointed out. These emphasize the need for three‐dimensional calculations to accurately determine the flow characteristics and heat transfer properties in realistic, high‐Rayleigh‐number situations.