Three-dimensional numerical simulation of the natural convection in an open tilted cubic cavity

In this work the numerical results of the heat transfer by natural convection in a tilted 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 in the steady state are obtained for a Rayleigh range from 10⁴ to 10 ⁷ and for a range of 0-180° for the inclination angles of the cavity. The results show that for high Rayleigh numbers, the Nusselt number changes substantially with the inclination angle of the cavity. The numerical model predicted Nusselt number oscillations for low angles and high Rayleigh numbers.