Pressure-Velocity Coupling Schemes for Bouyancy Driven Flow in a Differentially Heated Cavity Using F.V.M and Matlab

Abstract

Numerical analysis of fluid flow is anchored on the laws of conservation. A challenge in solving the momentum equation arises due to the unavailability of an explicit pressure equation. To avoid solving the pressure term most researchers have eliminated it by cross differentiating the x and the y two dimensional momentum equations and subtracting them. This method introduces more variables to be solved in comparison to the primitive variables and is  restricted to two-dimensional flows as streamlines do not exist in three-dimension. This method thus presents a serious limitation in analysis of fluid flow. In this study an equation for computing pressure has been developed using pressure - velocity coupling and used in solving the governing equations. The performance of three pressure velocity schemes namely; the Semi Implicit Method for Pressure linked Equation (SIMPLE), SIMPLE Revised (SIMPLER) and SIMPLE Consistent (SIMPLEC) for laminar buoyancy driven flow has been tested in order to establish the scheme that gives results consistent with bench mark data. The equations governing the flow are solved iteratively using finite volume method together with the central difference interpolating scheme. The solutions are presented for Rayleigh numbers of 103, 104, and 105. This resulted in the velocity profiles for the SIMPLE, SIMPLER, and SIMPLEC algorithm for a Rayleigh number of 104 and 105 converging to the same path. At a Rayleigh number of 103 however, SIMPLER algorithm undergoes a degradation in convergence with grid refinement at the baffle region. Results predicted by using the SIMPLEC algorithm are thus able to effectively compute the velocity of fluid flow in a differentially heated square enclosure with baffles for both low and higher Rayleigh numbers irrespective of the grid size.