NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF BUOYANT AND THERMOCAPILLARY CONVECTION IN A SQUARE CAVITY

Abstract

Numerical results are presented of the simulation of combined buoyant and thermocapillary convection in a square cavity, and comparison is made with experimental observations of Schwabe and Metzger [1]. The two-dimensional conservation equations for mass, momentum, and thermal energy (temperature) are solved using a multigrid finite-volume method and grids with up to 248 X 200 control volumes. Central differencing is used to discretize both convection and diffusion fluxes, and the coupling of pressure and velocity is achieved via the SIMPLE algorithm for colocated variable arrangement [2]. The discretization accuracy of the results is estimated to be of the order of 1% on the finest grid. The agreement with experimental results is fairly good; the reasons for observed discrepancies are also discussed.