Numerical simulation of steady-state and transient natural convection in an isothermal open cubic cavity

In this work the numeric results, of the steady-state and transient heat transfer by natural convection in a horizontal isothermal open cubic cavity are presented. The most important assumptions in the mathematical formulation are two, the flow is laminar and the Boussinesq approximation is valid. The conservation equations in primitive variables are solved using the finite volume method and the SIMPLEC algorithm. The advective terms are approximated by the SMART scheme and the diffusive terms are approximated using the central differencing scheme. The results are obtained for a Rayleigh number range from 10⁴ to 10⁷.The numerical model predicted flow instabilities and Nusselt number oscillations for high Rayleigh numbers.