MODELING OF NATURAL THERMOGRAVITATIONAL CONVECTION 
IN HORIZONTAL CHANNELS WITH AN IRREGULARLY SHAPED CROSS SECTION

I. A. Ermolaev, A. I. Zhbanov, and V. S. Koshelev

UDC 536.24:532.54

Results of a numerical investigation of the natural thermogravitational 
convection of air in horizontal channels with a -shaped cross section 
are presented. Two-dimensional unsteady equations 
of convection in the Boussinesq approximation, which are written in 
the velocity vortex-current function-excess temperature variables, 
are employed as a mathematical model. In investigating, the range 
of Rayleigh numbers was bounded above by the value 106,
which corresponds to the range of applicability of the 
Boussinesq approximation to air in the problem posed. The boundary-value 
problem was solved numerically by the finite-element method of Galerkin 
(weak formulation). The distinctive features of the temperature and 
flow fields were revealed on the basis of calculations and the intensity 
of heat exchange was evaluated.

N. G. Chernyshevskii Saratov State University, Saratov, 
Russia; email: ZhbanovAI@info.sgu.ru. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii 
Zhurnal, Vol. 76, No. 4, pp. 134-137, July-August, 2003. Original 
article submitted November 1, 2002.