A numerical simulation of natural convection in an isosceles triangular enclosure heated from below

Abstract

We explore the transient natural convection in an isosceles triangular enclosure subject to cooling at the inclined surfaces and simultaneous heating at the base. The problem is numerically simulated using a commercial CFD package. The flow parameters considered here correspond to those adopted in a previous experiment. The study shows that the transient flow development in an isosceles triangular enclosure undergoes an early stage, a transitional stage and a quasi-steady stage for the present Grashof numbers. The transition of the flow from symmetric structures to asymmetric structures is observed. The good agreement of the present numerical results with previously reported experiments suggests that the present numerical model is applicable to similar problems over a broad range of parameters.