Analysis of Chaotic Natural Convection in a Tall Rectangular Cavity With Non-Isothermalwalls

Abstract

A computational model is presented that extends prior work on unsteady natural convection in a tall rectangular cavity with aspect ratio 10 and applies Proper Orthogonal Decomposition to the results. The solution to the weakly compressible Navier-Stokes equation is computed for a range of Rayleigh numbers between 2 × 10 7 and 2.2 × 10 8 with Prandtl number 0.71. A detailed spectral analysis shows dynamic system behavior beyond the Hopf bifurcation that was not previously observed. The wider Rayleigh range reveals new dynamic system behavior for the rectangular geometry, specifically a return to a stable oscillatory behavior that was not predicted in prior work. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) has been used to analyze the computational results. Five eigenvalue modes were required to capture correctly the basic flow structure. The POD failed to capture subtle aspects of the flow structure at high Rayleigh numbers for the model, indicating that a POD and Galerkin projection for several Rayleigh numbers will be needed to reproduce the complex behavior of the system.

Finite Element Study of DDNC in Bottom Heated Enclosures With Mass Diffusive Side Walls

“…where it's important to study fluid and heat flow patterns for various reasons. Natural convection phenomenon in enclosures is one of the widely studied research subject over years due to its importance in many practical applications (Heather et al, 2013;Manoj et al, 2014). Since last decade there is an increasing level of interest among the researchers in studying the flow behavior and heat transfer mechanism in the enclosures under the combined influence of thermal and solutal buoyancy forces.…”