International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow

Numerical simulation of natural convection using unsteady compressible Navier-

stokes equations
Mahmoud M. El-Gendi, Abdelraheem M. Aly,
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To cite this document:
Mahmoud M. El-Gendi, Abdelraheem M. Aly, (2017) "Numerical simulation of natural convection using
unsteady compressible Navier-stokes equations", International Journal of Numerical Methods for
Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 27 Issue: 11, pp.2508-2527, https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-10-2016-0376
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HFF
27,11
2508
Received 11 October 2016
Revised 2 January 2017
Accepted 3 January 2017
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International Journal of Numerical
Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow
Vol. 27 No. 11, 2017
pp. 2508-2527
Emerald Publishing Limited
0961-5539
DOI 10.1108/HFF-10-2016-0376
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0961-5539.htm
Numerical simulation of
natural convection using
unsteady compressible
Navier-stokes equations
Mahmoud M. El-Gendi
Department of Mechanical Power Engineering and Energy,
Minia University, El Minia, Egypt, and
Abdelraheem M. Aly
Department of Mathematics, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt
Abstract
Purpose Boussinesq approximation is widely used in solving natural convection problems, but it has
severe practical limitations. Using Boussinesq approximation, the temperature difference should be less than
28.6 K. The purpose of this study is to get rid of Boussinesq approximation and simulates the natural
convection problems using an unsteady compressible Navier-Stokes solver. The gravity force is included in
the source term. Three temperature differences are used namely 20 K, 700 K and 2000 K.
Design/methodology/approach The calculations are carried out on the square and sinusoidal
cavities. The results of low temperature difference have good agreement with the experimental and previous
calculated data. It is found that, the high temperature difference has a signicant effect on the density.
Findings Due to mass conservation, the density variation affects the velocity distribution and its
symmetry. On the other hand, the density variation has a negligible effect on the temperature distribution.
Originality/value The present calculation method has no limitations but its convergence is slow. The
current study can be used in uid ow simulations for nuclear power applications in natural convection ows
subjected to large temperature differences.
Keywords Navier-Stokes, Natural convection, Boussinesq approximation, Compressible solver
Paper type Research paper
Nomenclature
CA = corrugation amplitude;
CF = corrugation frequency;
g = dimensionless acceleration g g0 =U21 =L1 ;
g0 = gravitational acceleration (m/s2);
J = Jacobian matrix;
L = width or height of the enclosure (m);
L1 = reference length (m);
p = dimensionless pressure, p0=r 1 U21 ;
p0 = pressure N/m2;
Pr = Prandtl number, Pr = y 0/a0;
Ra = Rayleigh number, Ra g0 b 0 Tdif L3 Pr=y 20 ;
Re1 = Reference Reynolds number, Re1 = r 1U1L1/ m 1;
t = dimensionless time, t = t0U1/L1;
 t0 = time (s); Numerical
T = dimensionless temperature, T = T0/T1; simulation of
TC = temperature of the cold surface (K);
Tdif = temperature difference, Tdif = Th  TC;
natural
Th = the temperature of the hot surface (K); convection
Tm = reference temperature, Tm = (Th TC)/2 (K);
T1 = reference temperature (K);
T0 = temperature (K); 2509
u = dimensionless velocity component in the x-direction, u= u0/U1;
u0 = velocity component in x0 direction (m/s); p
u* = dimensionless velocity component in x-direction, u* u0 = g0 b 0 Tdif L;
U1 = reference velocity (m/s); p
v* = dimensionless velocity component in the x-direction, v0 = g0 b 0 Tdif L;
U, V, W = contravariant velocities;
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x, y, z = dimensionless Cartesian co-ordinates;

x0, y0, z0 = Cartesian co-ordinates (m);
v = dimensionless velocity component in y-direction, v0/U1; and
v0 = velocity component in y0-direction (m/s).

Greek symbols
a0 = the coefcient of thermal diffusion (m2 s1);
b0 = the coefcient of thermal expansion, b 0 = l/Tm (K-I);
r = dimensionless density;
r0 = density (kg m3);
r1 = reference density (kg m3);
y0 = kinematic viscosity (m2 s1);
T = dimensionless pseudo-time;
m1 = Reference absolute viscosity (kg m1 s1);
U = convergence time;
j ,h ,z = generalized coordinate system; and
= Dimensionless temperature, = (T0 TC)/(Th TC).

Subscripts
C = Cold;
H = Hot;
0 = dimensional values; and
1 = reference values for the normalization of Navier-Stokes equations.

1. Introduction
The natural convection ow calculations within an enclosure have a great interest in the
engineering and science because of their industrial applications. These applications include,
but are not limited to, designing solar collectors, cooling of electronic components, double-
glazed windows and building insulation. The natural convection heat transfer is dened as
mass and energy transport driven by buoyancy forces due to the density variations acted
upon by gravitation. The density variations result from the local temperature gradients are
generated by the heat conduction and internal energy advection. Typical natural convection
problems result in the ow speeds which are relatively slow, i.e. low Mach number.
The Boussinesq approximation is usually used in the natural convection calculations
because it is coded easily and it has rapidly converge results. Then the most common
 HFF implementation of the natural convection is based on the Boussinesq approximation. De
27,11 Vahl Davis (1983) calculated a laminar ow within a square cavity. Barakos et al. (1994)
calculated the laminar and turbulent ows within a square cavity. Agrawal et al. (2010)
compared the numerical results with and without Boussinesq approximation in a square
cavity. In the recent years, Szewc et al. (2011) introduced the Boussinesq and Non-
Boussinesq formulations for modeling the natural convection in a cavity using Smoothed
2510 Particle Hydrodynamics method.
According to Gray and Giorgini (1976), when the temperature difference between the
heat and cold sources of the natural convection problem is smaller than 28.6 K, the results
obtained by the Boussinesq approximation are well consistent with the practical situation.
However, in many important natural convection problems, the temperature differences are
high. Because of the limitations of the Boussinesq assumption in the cases of the high-
temperature difference for natural convection, the factor of the compressibility of the uid
which causes the problems to become very complicated should be then considered.
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The natural convection problems in which the ow is regarded as a compressible uid

ow have been introduced in the literature. Weiss and Smith (1995) adopted the
preconditioning method to simulate a natural convection in a two-dimensional concentric
circle. The temperatures of inner and outer walls were 2,000 K and 1,000 K, respectively. The
results showed that the usage of the preconditioning method could reduce the computational
time by approximately 60 times. Paillere et al. (2000) used the preconditioning method to
calculate a natural convection in the two-dimensional enclosure. Yamamoto et al. (2004)
investigated a natural convection of a circular cylinder set in an external ow. The
preconditioning method was used to calculate a compressible ow in a natural convection
and the results had a good agreement with the experimental results. Using three-
dimensional Navier-Stokes (NS) calculations, Fu et al. (2010) investigated a dual-reection
phenomenon. Also, Fu et al. (2012) carried out steady and unsteady calculations by compute
unied device architecture (CUDA) computation platform.
On the other hand, the extensive studies have been reported about the unsteady natural
convection within simpler geometry enclosures such as the square cavity, rectangular
cavity, triangular cavity, trapezoidal cavity (Saha, 2011a, 2011b; Saha and Khan, 2011; Aly
and Asai, 2015; Aly and Ahmed, 2014; Aly, 2015; Aly, 2016; Rashad et al., 2017; Aly et al.,
2016; Aly et al., 2015; Sheremet et al., 2017; Kolsi et al., 2016; Aly and ASAI, 2016). A review
of studies on the natural convection heat transfer in the triangular enclosure, namely, in
attic-shaped space, has been introduced by Saha and Khan (2011). The study of natural
convection for relatively simple corrugated surfaces, such as a vee-corrugation (Saha et al.,
2007; Chinnappa, 1970; Hussain et al., 2011; Ali and Husain, 1993; Ali and Hasanuzzaman,
2008), has always received greater focus compared to relatively complex corrugations such
as the sinusoidal corrugation. Natural convection in the modied enclosures with
corrugation or enclosures with complex geometries have also been studied for past decades,
though not as extensively as simpler enclosures. Much research activity has been devoted to
this topic over the past three decades with a view to providing thermal comfort to the
occupants in attic-shaped buildings and to minimizing the energy costs associated with
heating and air-conditioning. Two basic thermal boundary conditions of the attic are
considered to represent hot and cold climates or day and night time. Morsi and Das (2003)
calculated the ow within different complex geometry. Nithiarasu et al. (1998) simulated the
ow within an L-shaped enclosure. Hasan et al. (2012) simulated a natural convection ow
within a sinusoidal enclosure. Saha et al. (2008) studied the laminar viscous incompressible
ow in a sinusoidal corrugated inclined enclosure using nite element method. In their
analysis, the vertical walls are assumed sinusoidal corrugated walls with constant low
 temperature. Misirlioglu et al. (2005) studied numerically the free convection in a wavy Numerical
cavity lled with a porous medium using the Galerkin nite element method. They simulation of
presented the wavy walls prole as a cosine curve. Sheremet and Pop (2015) investigated
numerically the effects of sinusoidal temperature distributions inside walls of a wavy
natural
porous cavity lled with nanouid. Sojoudi et al. (2014) adopted implicit nite volume convection
method with Tri-Diagonal Matrix Algorithm (TDMA) solver to study the free convection
within a porous cavity with differential heating using modied corrugated side walls. In
their model, the sinusoidal hot left and cold right walls are assumed to receive sudden
2511
differentially heating where top and bottom walls are insulated. The effects of wall
amplitude on the Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) free convection in a wavy trapezoidal
enclosure lled with nanouid have been examined numerically using mixed nite-element
method with polynomial pressure projection stabilization (Job and Gunakala, 2016).
Sheikholeslami et al. (2014) applied control volume-based nite element method to study the
effects of the amplitude of the sinusoidal enclosure wall on the ow and heat transfer of
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CuOwater nanouid in the presence of a magnetic eld. The effects of the presence of
roughness on the vertical cavity walls were studied numerically using the relaxation time
BhatnagarGross and Krook model of Lattice Boltzmann method. They located the
sinusoidal roughness elements on a hot wall, and both the hot and cold walls simultaneously
with varying number of elements and the dimensionless amplitude. Hussein and Hussain
(2016) visualized the natural convection by heatlines in three types of inclined wavy cavities
lled with Al2O3water and Agwater nanouids. Srinivasacharya and Vijay Kumar (2015)
adopted Chebyshev pseudo-spectral method to study the mixed convection in a nanouid
along an inclined wavy surface embedded in a porous medium. In their study, the complex
wavy surface is transformed into a smooth surface by employing a coordinate
transformation. The set of the governing equations is linearized using successive
linearization methods and then solved by Chebyshev method. Rahman et al. (2016)
performed a numerical analysis using nite element method on the natural convection heat
and mass transfer in inclined semi-circular enclosures. They studied the effect of magnetic
eld and inclination angle on the heat and mass transfer in a curvilinear geometry.
The main objective of this study is to simulate the natural convection over the square
enclosure and sinusoidal corrugated side walls enclosure using an unsteady compressible
NS solver. In this study, we get rid of the Boussinesq approximation due to its severe
practical limitations which result from the small temperature difference, less than 28.6 K, at
using Boussinesq approximation. Here, the gravity force is included in the source term and
three temperature differences are used, namely, 20 K, 700 K and 2,000 K. The calculations
are carried out on the square and sinusoidal cavities. The results of low-temperature
difference have a good agreement with the experimental and previously calculated data. It is
found that the high-temperature difference has a signicant effect on the density. And due to
mass conservation, the density variation affects the velocity distribution and its symmetry.
On the other hand, the density variation has a negligible effect on the temperature
distribution. The present calculation method has no limitations but its convergence is slow.

2. Studied cases
The ow was simulated inside the two enclosures: the enclosure of sinusoidal corrugated
side walls and the square enclosure. The top and bottom walls are considered as adiabatic
surfaces and the side walls are considered as isothermal surfaces.
The schematic diagram of the sinusoidal cavity is shown in Figure 1(a) and the equation
of the vertical surfaces is as Hasan et al. (2012).
 HFF L
27,11 Adiabatic

T = Th
or
T = (Th-Tc)y+Tc T = Tc L
2512 g

v
y
Adiabatic
x u
(a)
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T = Th g
or T = Tc
T = (Th-Tc)y+Tc
Figure 1.
v
Schematic diagram
and boundary
condition of cavities:
(a) sinusoidal cavity; u
(b) square cavity
(b)
  
2p x
y CA sin CF
L
where, CA is the corrugation amplitude and CF is the corrugation frequency of the
sinusoidal side walls. The calculations are carried out on the several Rayleigh numbers
(Ra = 103, 104, 105, 106, 107). The uid media within the enclosure is an air with Prandtl
number, Pr = 0.72. The schematic diagram of the square cavity is shown in Figure 1(b). The
calculations are carried out on several Rayleigh numbers (Ra = 103, 104, 105, 1.89  105, 106).
At Ra = 1.89  105, the effect of the temperature difference is studied by carrying out the
calculations also at Tdif = 2,000 K. The effect of gradient temperature distribution is studied
on the square and sinusoidal cavities at different Raleigh numbers. The temperature at the
right side is maintained constant (T = Tc). The temperature on the left side follows this
relation: T = (Th  Tc) y Tc. Therefore, the temperature linearly changed from Tc at the
bottom to Th at the top, where Tdif = Th  Tc = 700 K.

3. Numerical method
3.1 Computational grids
The stretched one-block H-type grid was used in both cavities. The grids are 120  120 and
100  120 points for the square and sinusoidal cavities, respectively. The rst point is
positioned at distance 0.0001 L from the wall. Figure 2 shows the grid for the sinusoidal and
square cavities.
 3.2 Boundary conditions Numerical
The non-slip condition was implemented on all sides. The isothermal condition was used on simulation of
the side walls, but the adiabatic condition was used on the top and bottom walls. By
changing the Rayleigh number, we kept the temperature difference (Tdif) constant and
natural
change the characteristic length of the cavity L (Figures 1 and 2). At Tdif = 20 K, the hot (Th) convection
and cold (Tc) temperatures are 283 K and 303 K, respectively. At Tdif = 2,000 and 700 K, the
cold temperature is kept at 293 K. 2513
3.3 Mathematical model
The following assumptions are considered to investigate the present problem.
 the uid within the cavity is air and treated as a calorically perfect gas;
 the problem is two-dimensional laminar ow;
 no-slip condition is assumed to all edges of the cavity;
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 top and bottom sides are treated as adiabatic surfaces and the side walls are treated
as isothermal surfaces;
 the right side has a constant hot temperature, Th, while the left side has a constant
cold temperature, Tc; and
 initially, the cavity was lled with air at temperature (Th Tc)/2.

Taking into account these assumptions, the dimensionless governing equations in conservative
form of unsteady two-dimensional compressible laminar ow can be expressed as:
 
@Q @E @F 1 @Ev @Fv
S (1)
@t @x @y Re1 @x @y
0 1 0 1
r 0
B C B C
B ru C B r fx C
B C B C
QB C; SB C (2)
B rv C B r f C
@ A @  y
A
e r ufx vfy r q_

Figure 2.
The discretization
grids for the
sinusoidal and square
cavities: (a) sinusoidal
cavity; (b) square
cavity
 0 1 0 1
HFF ru rv
B C B C
27,11 B r uu p C B r uv p C
B C B C
E B C; F B C (3)
B r vu p C B r vv p C
@ A @ A
e pu e pv
2514 0 1 0 1
0 0
B C B C
B t xx C B t xy C
B C B C
Ev B C; Fv B C (4)
B t yx C B t yy C
@ A @ A
bx by
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3.4 Numerical scheme

NS equations were solved by a locally developed code. The spatial discretization was carried
out using the cell vertex nite difference method (Authoer, 2001). The lower upper
symmetric GaussSeidel method (Jameson and Yoon, 1987) and the second-order dual time
method (Arnone et al., 1995) were used to obtain time accurate results for the transient
calculations. In addition, the inviscid numerical uxes were calculated using the Roes
scheme with E-x (Hirsch, 2007; Roe, 1981). The monotonic upwind scheme for conservation
laws (MUSCL) scheme and the Van Albada ux limiter are used to achieve the second-order
accuracy. The viscous uxes were calculated by the central difference method. The
calculations were carried out by 12-processor Linux cluster, and the Message Passing
Interface (MPI) (Authoer, 1994) was used for parallelization.
The dimensionless NS equations in generalized coordinate system ( j , h , z ) are shown in
equation (5):
 
@Q @E @F 1 @Ev @Fv
S (5)
@t @j @h Re1 @j @h

where:
0 1 0 1
r 0
B C B C
B ru C B r fx C
1 B C B C
QJ B C; S J 1 B C (6)
B rv C B r f C
@ A @  y
A
e r ufx vfy r q_

0 1 0 1
rU rV
B C B C
B r uU j x p C B r uV h p C
1 B C 1 B x C
E J B C; F J B C (7)
B r vU j y p C B r vV h y p C
@ A @ A
e pU e pV
 0 1 0 1
0 0 Numerical
B C B C
B j x t xx j y t xy C B h x t xx h y t xy C simulation of
B C B C
Ev J 1 B C; Fv J 1 B C (8) natural
B j x t yx j y t yy C B h x t yx h y t yy C
@ A @ A convection
j xb x j yb y hxb x hyb y

and: 2515
p r RT (9)
 
2 @u @v
t xx m 2  (10)
3 @x @y

 
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2 @v @w
t yy m 2  (11)
3 @y @z

 
@u @v
t xy t yx m (12)
@y @x

@T
b x ut xx vt xy k (13)
@x

@T
b y ut yx vt yy k (14)
@y

p 1
e r u2 v2 (15)
g  1 2

m
k (16)
g  1M1
2 Pr

1 S =T1 3
m T2 (17)
T S =T1

U and V represent the contravariant velocities:

U j xu j yv (18)

V h xu h yv (19)

Dual time method is used to obtain accurate time integration for unsteady calculations
(Arnone et al., 1995). This method is based on introducing derivative of pseudo-time as
shown in equation (20):
    
HFF @Q @Q @ 1 @ 1
E Ev F Fv S 0 (20)
27,11 @t @t @j Re1 @h Re1
For implicit integration, equation (20) can be written as follows:
     m1
@Q @ 1 @ 1 Qm1  Qm
E Ev F Fv  S 0
@t @j Re1 @h Re1 Dt
2516
(21)
The inviscid uxes were linearized by the Taylor series expansion. Then, the solution
was carried out in two steps, forward sweep and backward sweep. The sweeps were
carried out on the planes where i j = constant (Yoon and Kwak, 1991; Yoon and
Kwakt, 1992). More details about the governing equations and solving procedures can
be found in El Gendi (2010).
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The numerical algorithm can be summarized as follows:

 set the dimensions of arrays and read the initial conditions;
 calculate the reference variables that were used in the dimensionless process;
 read the coordinates of the grid points and distribute them on the cluster processors
using the MPI method;
 calculate the metrics and the Jacobian of the grid for generalized coordinate system;
 set the initial conditions as dimensionless values;
 set the boundary conditions as dimensionless values;
 calculate the inviscid and viscous uxes, and the source term;
 solve the linearized equations using lower-upper symmetric Gauss-Seidel (LUSGS)
method to obtain the conservative variables;
 if the iteration number equals specied values, print the results; and
 end the calculations if the iteration number reaches a specic value, else go to
step 6.

4. Validation tests
To validate the numerical technique, the benchmark model for natural convection of air in a
square cavity was solved at different Ra and at Pr = 0.71. The results were compared with
those of De Vahl Davis (1983). The size of the present grid is 120  120. De Vahl Davis (1983)
studies the effect of grid size on the solution, and the size of its nest grid was 81  81. The
Nu was integrated by the trapezoidal integration method over the hot side. Comparisons of
the average Nu of the current study and De Vahl Davis (1983) on the hot side of the cavity (at
x = 0.0) were presented in Table I and a good agreement was observed.

Table I.
Comparisons Ra Present De Vahl Davis (1983) Difference (%)
between the current 103
1.190 1.116 6.6
and De Vahl Davis 104 2.255 2.242 0.6
(1983) average Nu at 105 4.363 4.523 3.5
left hot side 106 8.130 8.928 8.9
 5. Results and discussion Numerical
Figure 3 shows the present numerical results at Tdif = 20 and 2,000 K compared to the simulation of
experimental results (Krane and Jessee, 1983) and numerical results (Barakos et al., 1994) at
Tdif = 20 K for the temperature, horizontal and vertical velocities at Ra = 1.89  105. Figure
natural
3(a) shows the temperature distribution at mid-height along the x-axis. It is observed that convection
the current numerical results (Barakos et al., 1994) at Tdif = 20 K and Tdif = 2,000 K
exhibited a good agreement with the experimental (Krane and Jessee, 1983) and numerical
results at Tdif = 20 K. Therefore, the current numerical method is valid within (Tdif = 20 K) 2517
and outside (Tdif = 2,000 K) the range of the temperature difference limitation of the
Boussinesq approximation (Tdif < 28.6 K). For the horizontal and vertical velocities at Tdif =
20 K, there is a slight discrepancy between the current results and experimental data (Krane
and Jessee, 1983). Also, the numerical results of Barakos et al. (1994) shows a similar
discrepancy. At Tdif = 20 K, the numerical and experimental results show a similar trend. At
Tdif = 2,000 K, the current horizontal and vertical velocity proles are non-symmetric where
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velocity values on the hot regions are higher than those in cold regions. In addition, the
thermal [Figure 3(a)] and velocity [Figure 3(b) and (c)] boundary layers in the hot regions are
wider than those in the cold regions. Therefore, the current compressible solution validates
the conservation of mass because the air in the hot region is lighter than that in the cold
region. So that, the density decreasing due to increasing the temperature was compensated
by velocity increasing.
Figure 4 shows a comparison of the current results at Ra = 1.89  105 for Tdif = 20 and
2,000 K. We cannot notice a signicant difference between the isotherms of the two cases.
The horizontal and vertical velocity contours are represented by two concentric curves. At
Tdif = 20 K, the concentric curves of the horizontal and vertical velocity contours are almost
symmetric along the mid-wide and mid-height, respectively. At Tdif = 2,000 K, the
concentric curves of the horizontal and vertical velocity contours are more dominant at the
top and left, respectively. Therefore, the velocity contours occupy more area in the hotter
regions than in colder regions to compensate the variation in the density values and
maintain the conservation of mass. At Tdif = 20 K, the total velocity contours are almost
symmetric. At Tdif = 2,000 K, the total velocity contours are non-symmetric because they are
more dominant in the hot regions near the left and top sides. Although the top and bottom
sides are adiabatic, the top side is hotter than the bottom side (notice the isotherm) because
the ow circulates clockwise as shown by total velocity vectors.
Figure 5 shows the effect of the Rayleigh number (Ra = 103, 104, 105 and 106) on the
isotherms of the square cavity. It is observed that the isotherms are compressed in the
bottom part of the left wall and in the top part of the right wall. As the Rayleigh number
increases, the role of convective heat transfer increases and the conductive heat transfer
decreases. Therefore, the isotherms tend to be horizontal. In addition, the isotherms at the
core region gradually become more and more at with sharp bends at both ends with an
increase of Ra.
The effects of the Rayleigh number (Ra = 103, 104, 105, 106 and 107) on the isotherms of
the sinusoidal cavity have been shown in Figure 6. In this gure, the effects of the Rayleigh
number on the isotherms for the sinusoidal cavity have similar trends as a square cavity
case.
Figure 7 shows the development and transition of isotherms inside the square cavity at
Ra = 105. The left side is isothermal surface and the temperature equals 293. The right side
is isothermal surface and the temperature distribution obeys the relation T = (Th  Tc) y
Tc, where Th = 993 k and Tc = 293 K. The temperature difference (Tdif = 700 k) is greater
than Boussinesq approximation limit (Tdif < 28.6 K). The top and bottom surfaces are
 HFF
27,11 1.0
Experimental [50]
0.9 CFD - Ref [2]
CFD - Tdif = 20 K
0.8
CFD - Tdif = 2,000 K
0.7
2518 0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1
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0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
x
(a)

1.0

Experimental [50]
CFD - Ref [2]
0.8 CFD - Tdif = 20 K
CFD - Tdif = 2,000 K

0.6
y

0.4

0.2

0.0
-0.4 -0.2 0.0 0.2 0.4
u*
(b)
0.4
Experimental [50]
Figure 3. 0.3 CFD - Ref [2]
Comparisons of CFD - Tdif = 20 K
0.2
present numerical CFD - Tdif = 2,000 K
results, experimental 0.1
data of Krane and
v*

0.0
Jessee (1983), and
numerical results of 0.1
Barakos et al. (1994)
at Ra = 1.89  105: 0.2

(a) temperature 0.3

proles; (b) horizontal
velocity proles; 0.4
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
(c) vertical velocity
x
proles
(c)
 Numerical
simulation of
natural
convection

2519
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Figure 4.
Comparison of
current results at
Ra = 1.89  105 for
Tdif = 20 K and Tdif =
2,000 K: (a) isotherms;
(b) horizontal
velocity; (c) vertical
velocity; (d) total
velocity contours;
(e) total velocity
vectors
 HFF
27,11

2520
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Figure 5.
Effect of Ra on the
isotherms of the
square cavity, Tdif =
20 K: (a) Ra = 103; (b)
Ra = 104; (c) Ra = 105;
(d) Ra = 106

adiabatic. The calculations are converging and the isotherms are developing with time until
they reach their steady state condition at t = U. At the beginning, there are three distinct
regions: the right, the top left and bottom left regions. Near the right side, the isotherms are
almost vertical. The isotherms of the top and bottom left sides are almost concentric. While
the ow converged, all the isotherms move inward. The isotherms of the top left side
are intrusive and move horizontally until they stopped by the isotherms on the right side.
The isotherms of the bottom left and right move inward until they merge. At steady state
condition, the isotherms form concentric contours where the center is the top left corner.
Figure 8 shows the development and transition of isotherms inside the sinusoidal cavity
at Ra = 105. The boundary conditions are the same as the boundary conditions of the square
cavity shown in Figure 7. In this gure, the development and transition of the isotherms for
this case have similar trends as the square cavity case except for a tangible difference. The
sinusoidal cavity takes more time to reach its steady state condition than the square cavity.
This slower convergence may be because the path of the circulate velocity in the sinusoidal
cavity is longer than that in the square cavity.
Figure 9 shows the effect of Ra on the isotherms inside the square cavity. The left side is
isothermal surface and the temperature equals 293 K. The right side is isothermal surface
and the temperature distribution obeys the relation T = (Th  Tc) y Tc, where Th = 993 K
and Tc = 293 K. The temperature difference (Tdif = 700 K) is greater than the Boussinesq
approximation limit (Tdif < 28.6 K). The top and bottom surfaces are adiabatic. At Ra = 103,
the isotherms form almost circular curves where the center is the top left corner. The effect
of convection increases by increasing Ra so the isotherms in the core of the cavity tend to be
in the horizontal direction.
Figure 10 shows the effect of Ra on the isotherms inside the sinusoidal cavity. The
boundary conditions are the same as the boundary condition of the square cavity shown in
 Numerical
simulation of
natural
convection

2521
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Figure 6.
Effects of Ra on the
isotherms of the
sinusoidal cavity,
Tdif = 20 K: (a) Ra =
103; (b) Ra = 104;
(c) Ra = 105; (d) Ra =
106; (e) Ra = 107
 HFF Figure 9. In this gure, the effects of Ra on the isotherms of the sinusoidal cavity have
27,11 similar trends as square cavity case except that at high Ra, the lowest value contours of the
right and left sides do not merge.

6. Conclusions
In this study, we get rid of Boussinesq approximation and we simulate the natural
2522 convection problem using an unsteady compressible NS solver. The gravity force is
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Figure 7.
Development and
transition of thermal
layers in square
cavity at Ra = 105, at
right side T = Tc and
at left side T = (Th -
Tc) y Tc, Tc = 293
K, and Th= 993 K: (a)
t = 1/40 U; (b) t = 2/
40 U; (c) t = 3/40 U;
(d) t = 4/40 U; (e) t =
5/40 U; (f) t = 6/40 U;
(g) t = 7/40 U; (h) t =
8/40 U; (i) t = 1/4 U;
(j) t = 2/4 U; (k) t = 3/
4 U; (l) t = U; (m) t =
5/4 U; (n) t = 6/4 U;
(o) t = 7/4 U

Figure 8.
Development and
transition of thermal
layers in sinusoidal
cavity at Ra = 105, at
right side T = Tc and
at left side T = (Th-
Tc) y Tc, Tc = 293
K, and Th= 993 K: (a)
t = 1/5 U; (b) t = 2/5
U; (c) t = 3/5 U; (d)
t = 4/5 U; (e) t = U;
(f) t = 6/5 U; (g)
t = 7/5 U
 Numerical
simulation of
natural
convection

2523

Figure 9.
Effect of Ra on the
isotherms of the
square cavity, at right
side T = Tc and at left
side T = (Th-Tc) y
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Tc, Tc = 293 K, and

Th = 993 K: (a) Ra =
103; (b) Ra = 104; (c)
Ra = 105; (d) Ra = 106

Figure 10.
Effect of Ra on the
isotherms of the
sinusoidal cavity, at
right side T = Tc and
at left side T = (Th-
Tc) y Tc, Tc = 293
K, and Th= 993 K: (a)
Ra = 103; (b) Ra = 104;
(c) Ra = 105; (d) Ra =
106; (e) Ra = 107
 HFF included in the source term. Here, three temperature differences are used, namely, 20 K, 700
27,11 K and 2,000 K. The calculations are carried out on the square and sinusoidal cavities. The
results of low-temperature difference have a good agreement with the experimental and
previously calculated data. The results of high-temperature difference show that the density
variation has a tangible effect on the velocity distribution and the thickness of the boundary
layers, but it has not a signicant effect on the temperature distribution. At the steady state
2524 condition of the gradient temperature distribution, the isotherms form concentric contours
where the center is the top left corner. There is no signicant difference between the results
of square and sinusoidal cavities. The present calculation method has no limitations but its
convergence is slow. The current study can be used in uid ow simulations for nuclear
power applications in natural convection ows subjected to large temperature differences.
Finally, the present study solves a complete set of the NS equations and get rides of the
limitation of the Boussinesq approximation.
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2527
Corresponding author
Abdelraheem M. Aly can be contacted at: abdelreheam.abdallah@sci.svu.edu.eg
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