Abstract
3-dimensional unsteady natural convection in a cubic cavity is investigated numerically. 3-dimensional unsteady finite element scheme(GSMAC scheme) has been developed in order to save the computer storage and computation time. The conclusions are summarized as follows:
(1) In comparison with the natural convections in a cubic cavity and in a square cavity, some important phenomena in 3-dimensional natural convection appears in the vicinity of side walls which is ignored in 2-dimensional one. Moreover an interesting secondary flow is recognized in the cubic cavity.
(2) When Reyleigh number increases, a rapid transition of flow pattern occurs, which was also pointed out by Tsui et al. Detailed investigation is necessary to clarify this phenomenon.
(3) Since computer aided color flow visualization technique has been developed, the flow and temperature fields can be understood easily and obviously. This technique is very useful to examine other 3-dimensional fluid flows.
