| Abstract: | The time-dependent Navier–Stokes equations and the energy balance equation for an incompressible, constant property fluid in the Boussinesq approximation are solved by a least-squares finite element method based on a velocity–pressure–vorticity–temperature–heat-flux ( u –P–ω–T– q ) formulation discretized by backward finite differencing in time. The discretization scheme leads to the minimization of the residual in the l2-norm for each time step. Isoparametric bilinear quadrilateral elements and reduced integration are employed. Three examples, thermally driven cavity flow at Rayleigh numbers up to 106, lid-driven cavity flow at Reynolds numbers up to 104 and flow over a square obstacle at Reynolds number 200, are presented to validate the method. |
