Natural convection flow of air in an inclined open cavity

Abstract

Consider natural convection flow in a two dimensional inclined open cavity for both transient and steady-state flow. The left hand vertical wall of cavity is heated and facing an opening. The top and bottom boundaries are insulated. Numerical solutions are obtained for the Navier-Stokes equations on a non-staggered grid using a finite volume scheme. Results are considered for a wide range of Rayleigh numbers varying from 10 5 to 10 10 with Prandtl number 0.7 and inclination angles from 10 ? to 90 ? . The flow is steady at the low Rayleigh number for all angles and becomes unsteady at the high Rayleigh number for all angles. The critical Rayleigh numbers for all angles are obtained and we show that the critical Rayleigh number decreases as the inclination angle increases.