Natural convection in a rectangular cavity heated from below and uniformly cooled from the top and both sides

摘要

In this article, a study of natural convection inside a rectangular cavity is carried out. The bottom wall is heated by a spatially varying temperature and other three walls are kept constant at lower temperature. The integral forms of the governing equations are solved numerically using the finite-volume method in a nonorthogonal body-fitted coordinate system. The SIMPLE algorithm with higher-order upwinding scheme is used. Results are presented in the form of local and average Nusselt number distribution for a range of Rayleigh numbers (10(0) - 10(6)) and aspect ratios (0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25, 1.5, and 2). The streamlines and isothermal lines are presented for various Rayleigh numbers and a fluid having Prandtl number 0.71.