A Numerical Study of the Transitions of Laminar Natural Flows in a Square Cavity

This paper deals with the numerical study of heat and mass transfer occurring in a cavity filled with a low Prandtl number liquid. The model includes the momentum, energy and mass balance equations. These equations are discretized by a finite volume technique and solved in the framework of a custom SIMPLER method developed in FORTRAN. The effect of the problem characteristic parameters, namely the Lewis and Prandtl numbers, on the instability of the flow and related solute distribution is studied for positive and negative thermal and solutal buoyancy forces ratio. Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are derived for values of the Prandtl number ranging between 10(-2) and 10(1) with the Lewis number spanning the interval 1-10(4). The results show unicellular and multicellular flows featured by solute and kinematic boundary layers with thickness depending on the Prandtl number.