Transient natural convection in a differentially heated cavity with a thin fin of different lengths on a sidewall

Abstract

Direct numerical simulations of unsteady natural convection in a differentially heated cavity with a thin fin of different lengths on a sidewall at the Raleigh number of 3.8 × 109 are performed. It is found that the fin length significantly impacts on the transient thermal flow around the fin and heat transfer through the finned sidewall in the early stage of the transient flow development. The results also indicate that the oscillations of the thermal flow around the fin in the quasi-steady stage are very sensitive to the length of the fin.