A numerical study of three-dimensional natural convection in a differentially heated cubical enclosure

Abstract

A high-resolution, finite difference numerical study is reported on three-dimensional steady-state natural convection of air, for the Rayleigh number range 10 ≤ Ra ≤ 10, in a cubical enclosure, which is heated differentially at two vertical side walls. The details of the three-dimensional flow and thermal characteristics are described. Extensive use is made of state-of-the-art numerical flow visualizations. The existence of the transverse z-component velocity, although small in magnitude, is clearly shown. Comparison of the present three-dimensional results with the two-dimensional solutions is conducted. The three-dimensional data demonstrate reasonable agreement with the experimental measurements. © 1991.