NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS ON NATURAL CONVECTION IN A STABLY STRATIFIED FLUID DUE TO SIDE-WALL HEATING

Abstract

Numerical experiments were conducted to study the natural convection in a stably stratified salt water solution with lateral heating in a square rectangular enclosure. The method of investigation employed is the finite-difference solution of the basic conservation equations for a two-dimensional, laminar, unsteady double-diffusive convection, and calculation is made for 1.0 × 10⁵ ≤ Ra_T ≤ 1.0 × l0⁶ and ≤ N ≤ 15. Four distinct flow regimes are observed depending on the magnitude of solutal stratification relative to thermal buoyancy N; unicell flow regime for N - 1, fully developed flow regime for N - 3, layered flow regime with the stagnant core for N - 5, and stagnant flow regime for N - 7. Formation of layered flow structure with time and the corresponding temperature and concentration distributions are examined. Due to the double-diffusive nature of heat and salt, interesting temperature and concentration profiles are obtained in each flow regime.