Transient natural convection in triangular enclosures (Q1115286)

The analysis is carried out for laminar natural convection in a prismatic enclosure the cross-section of which constitutes an isosceles triangle. Two cases of thermal boundary conditions are considered: (a) the horizontal base is radiabatic, while the inclined walls are isothermal (cold and hot); (b) all the solid surfaces are isothermal (hot inclined surfaces and cold bottom). The finite-difference method for solving the non-stationary Navier-Stokes and energy equations is described which utilizes the physical variables velocity-pressure-temperature. The numerical solution of the problem is presented for Grashof numbers \(10^ 3\leq Gr\leq 10^ 8\) and height-to-base ratios 0.25\(\leq H/L\leq 2\). It has been found that the maximum values of the stream function and Nusselt numbers may perform damping oscillations around their steady-state values. At high Gr, gradient regions of the type of dynamic and thermal boundary layers are formed on all the solid surfaces and the temperature distribution in the central part of the enclosure approaches the conditions of fluid stratification. The present results are in good agreement with experimental data of other authors.