Numerical simulation and stability study of natural convection in an inclined rectangular cavity

Abstract

This paper examines the process of instability of natural convection in an inclined cavity based on numerical simulations. The energy gradient method is employed to analyze the physics of the flow instability in natural convection. It is found that the maximum value of the energy gradient function in the flow field correlates well with the location where flow instability occurs. Meanwhile, the effects of the flow time, the plate length, and the inclination angle on the instability have also been discussed. It is observed that the locations of instabilities migrate right as the flow time increased. With the increase of plate length, the onset time of the instability on the top wall of the cavity decreases gradually and the locations of instabilities move to the right side. Furthermore, the locations of instability move left with the increase of the inclination angle in a certain range. However, these positions move right as the accumulation of the heat flux is restrained in the lower left corner of the cavity once the inclination angle exceeds a certain range. © 2013 Hua-Shu Dou et al.