Publications Details

Finite control volume modeling of laminar and turbulent flow of air in an enclosure

Hogan, R.E.; Kettleborough, C.F.

The finite control volume method (FCVM) was successfully used to calculate both laminar and turbulent buoyancy driven flow of air in a square enclosure for Ra = 10/sup 3/ to 10/sup 8/. For laminar flow, comparisons of the computed solution with both experimental data and other numerical solutions are in excellent agreement. Comparisons of selected velocities and average Nusselt numbers with a ''benchmark'' solution presented by deVahl Davis are consistently within 4%. For turbulent flow, the agreement with another numerical solution is generally good, considering the large difference in the number of nodes employed. The agreement with extrapolated experimental correlations for the average Nusselt number was acceptable. 20 refs., 4 figs., 2 tabs.