Unsteady natural convection in a toroidal vessel of arbitrary cross section (Q806503)

Unsteady natural convection in toroidal vessels, whose meridional cross section is a quadrangle with arbitrary curvilinear boundaries, is considered. The gravity vector is parallel to the axis of symmetry. The Navier-Stokes and energy equations are reduced to a universal form that describes the convective processes in both the plane and axisymmetric cases. A numerical solution of the problem is obtained on the basis of a multistep implicit finite-difference method. The unsteady natural convection in a toroidal vessel whose cross section is formed by segments of straight lines is calculated. The need to investigate natural convection processes in vessels of toroidal shape has arisen in connection with the expansion of design work on solar collectors and vessels used in cryogenic engineering.