Oscillatory natural convection in a square enclosure containing a PCM suspension

In this study, a numerical simulation is performed to explore oscillatory natural convection in a square enclosure with a phase change material (PCM) suspension using the implicit finite difference method. The following parameters are considered: aspect ratio of the physical model = 1; ratio of the buoyancies caused by temperature and concentration gradients = 1; Rayleigh number = 10(3)-10(6); initial mass fraction (or concentration) of PCM particles = 0-0.1; Stefan number = 0.005-0.1; and subcooling factor = 0-1.0. The results show that high Rayleigh numbers can easily cause oscillations in the flow field and temperature distribution. However, even under low Rayleigh number conditions, when the initial mass fraction or subcooling is increased or the Stefan number is decreased, oscillations occur.

Automated summary

In this study, numerical simulation was used to investigate oscillatory natural convection in a square enclosure with a phase change material suspension. The results show that oscillations occur not only at high Rayleigh numbers, but also under low Rayleigh number conditions when the initial mass fraction or subcooling is increased, or the Stefan number is decreased.