International Journal o f Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017) 1065-1075

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

ELSEVIER journal hom epage: w w w .e ls e v ie r.c o m /lo c a te /ijh m t

Flow pattern and heat transfer in Rayleigh-Benard convection of cold CrossMark

water near its density maximum in a rectangular cavity

Yu-Peng Hua, You-Rong Lib'*, Chun-Mei W u b, Si-Zhong Lia, Ming-Hai Lia
aInstitute o f Systems Engineering, China Academy o f Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621999, China
bKey Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems o f Ministry o f Education, College o f Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: In order to understand the characteristics o f Rayleigh-Benard convection o f cold water near its density
Received 21 May 2016 maximum in a rectangular cavity with an aspect ratio o f 2, a series o f direct numerical simulations are
Received in revised form 28 October 2016 performed by using the finite volum e method. The flow patterns and their evolution and heat transfer
Accepted 3 November 2016
abilities are discussed in detail. Results indicate that the density maximum phenomenon affects signifi
Available online 10 November 2016
cantly the R-B convection o f cold water in a rectangular cavity. Compared with the cubical cavity, the crit
ical Rayleigh number for the onset o f convection in a rectangular cavity is small, and the effect o f the
Keywords:
aspect ratio on the critical value decreases with the increase o f the density inversion parameter. Some
Rayleigh-Benard convection
new multiple-roll flow patterns are observed in the rectangular cavity. Furthermore, the distribution o f
Cold water
Density maximum the local Nusselt number depends on the flow pattern. Compared with the results in a cubical cavity,
Flow characteristic the overall heat transfer ability in the rectangular cavity is enhanced under the same control parameters.
Heat transfer 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
When a fluid is heated from the bottom and cooled from the top
respectively, Rayleigh-Benard (R-B) convection occurs, which has
long been studied and received increasing attention due to its
extensive correlation with many engineering applications, such
as solar collector, crystal growth, heat exchanger and nuclear reac
tor etc [1 -4 ]. Compared with the natural convection subjected to a
horizontal temperature gradient, the R-B convection subjected to a
vertical temperature gradient doesnt happen until the tempera
ture difference exceeds a critical value. The R-B convection has
more complicated nonlinear characteristics with the increase of
the temperature difference. Therefore, it is also one o f the typical
models for the nonlinear phenomenon [5]. The pioneering study
on the R-B convection can be dated back to 1900s [6], in which a
regular hexagon roll was observed experimentally. Then, a dimen
sionless parameter, the Rayleigh ( Ra ) number, was proposed by
Rayleigh to describe the destabilization criterion o f the R-B convec
tion [7]. Thereafter, enormous efforts have been made to explore
the R-B convective characteristics in a cylinder. Charlson and Sani
[8], and Rosenblat [9] determined the critical Rayleigh number for
the onset o f the R-B convection in a cylinder, and found that the
threshold value is 2000 when the aspect ratio A = d/h (d is the
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: liyourong@cqu.edu.cn (Y.-R. Li).
diameter and h the height) is 1 and this value decreases to 1708
when the aspect ratio approaches infinity. Hebert et al. [10] stud
ied experimentally the R-B convection near the onset o f convection
in cylindrical containers with different aspect ratios, and four
regions o f the aspect ratio are classified according to the different
flow patterns.
Compared with the cylinder, the rectangle represents a different
symmetry, which may lead to different features o f the flow and the
heat transfer. Therefore, the R-B convection in a rectangular cavity
has also attracted the attention o f researchers [11-13]. DOrazio
et al. [14] investigated numerically the R-B convection in
air-filled two-dimensional rectangular cavities, and obtained
evolution characteristics o f the flow patterns from the one-cell
steady flow ? the two-cell steady flow ? the two-cell periodic
flow ? the one-to-three-cell periodic flow ? the three-cell
periodic flow. Furthermore, they concluded that the flow and the
heat transfer rates depend strongly on the geometry character.
Zhan et al. [15-16] studied three-dimensional characteristics of
the R-B convection in a rectangular cavity with experimental and
numerical methods, and found that the rotation direction o f rolls
is significantly affected by the thermal condition o f the lateral wall.
Waleffe et al. [17] proposed heat transfer correlations for the
primary solutions which bifurcate from the conduction states at
different ranges o f the Rayleigh number. Mukutmoni [18]
examined the flow evolution in rectangular cavities with aspect
ratios o f 2.42 and 1.23 and found the counter-intuitive transition

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2016.11.013
0017-9310/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1066 Y.-P. Hu et al./International Journal o f Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017 ) 1065-1075
Nomenclature
A aspect ratio
e unit vector
g acceleration o f gravity, m/s2
h height o f cavity, m
l length o f square cross section, m
L dimensionless length o f square cross section
Nu Nusselt number
P dimensionless pressure
Pr Prandtl number, Pr = v/a
q exponent in Eq. (1)
Ra Rayleigh number, Ra = gy(Th - Tc)qh3/(av)
T temperature, C
U dimensionless velocity in x-direction
V dimensionless velocity in y-direction
W dimensionless velocity in z-direction
x, y, z Cartesian coordinates, m
X, Y, Z dimensionless Cartesian coordinates
from the quasi-periodic flow to the steady flow. This phenomenon
is also observed in the bifurcation analysis o f the R-B convection in
a cubical cavity [19].
Recently, the multiple stationary states coexistence and the
flow characteristics of the R-B convection have been focused [20,21].
Boroiiska and Tuckerman [22,23] investigated the extreme
multiplicity in the cylindrical R-B convection with the aspect ratio
o f 2, and discovered various coexisting patterns o f steady and
time-dependent flows. Bousset et al. [24] studied numerically the
nonlinear three-dimensional R-B convection regimes in a cavity
with adiabatic and perfectly heat-conducting sidewalls. The exis
tence o f different types o f convective structures is detected over
a wide range o f governing parameters, and their stability ranges
o f Ra are also assured. Puigjaner et al. [25,26] did further work
for the same model at Ra 6 1.5 x 105, and discussed the effect of
the Prandtl (Pr) number on the multiple solution. The variation
o f the Nusselt (Nu) number as a function o f Pr is presented for
the different flow patterns. Then, the insight is gained into the
onset and nonlinear development o f the R-B convection in a 2-D
rectangular cavity by Daniels and Jhugroo [27]. The flow structures
o f the steady state and their nonlinear development were
discussed in their study.
From the above-mentioned literatures the density o f the fluid is
assumed to vary linearly with the temperature, and this kind of
fluid is often named as common fluid. However, some special fluids
that have density extremum exist in the natural and engineering
fields for which the linear temperature-density relationship is no
longer suitable. For example, the density o f cold water has its max
imum at around 4 C and decreases as the temperature is changed.
This density inversion phenomenon makes the R-B convection
more complicated. A lot o f experimental observations and numer
ical simulations have been reported for the natural convection of
cold water near its density maximum in the rectangular cavity
with a horizontal temperature gradient [28-30]. The results
showed that the density inversion phenomenon has strong effects
on the fluid flow and heat transfer.
But until now, there have been a few investigations on the R-B
convection o f cold water near its density maximum. Zubkov et al.
[31] investigated numerically the R-B convection o f cold water in
a cubic cavity with the horizontal walls heated and cooled sym
metrically relative to the temperature o f the density maximum,
and totally six kinds o f flow patterns were obtained. Then, an
experiment on the R-B convection o f cold water in a rectangular
Greek symbols
a thermal diffusivity, m2/s
y thermal expansion coefficient, (C)-q
1 dynamic viscosity, kg/(ms)
v kinematic viscosity, m2/s
H dimensionless temperature, H = ( T - Tc)/(Th - Tc)
q density, kg/m3
s dimensionless time
Subscripts
ave average
c cold wall
h hot wall
m density inversion point
p period
cavity was carried out by Large and Andereck [32]. The upper stag
nant region o f the fluid layer which is not observed for common
fluid has been discovered in this experiment. But the flow charac
teristics at different density inversion parameters were not inves
tigated in this study. In our previous investigations [33-35], the
R-B convection o f cold water in cylindrical and cubic cavities was
studied systematically. It is found that the density inversion phe
nomenon has a great influence on the R-B convection at different
density inversion parameters.
However, the flow structures o f the R-B convection o f cold
water in a rectangular cavity may be very different from those in
cylindrical and cubic cavities. Furthermore, the oscillation flow of
the R-B convection o f cold water has not been reported until
now. In order to extend the existing knowledge, this paper pre
sents a series o f numerical simulations on the R-B convection of
cold water from steady to oscillation flow in a rectangular cavity
with the aspect ratio o f 2.
2. Problem statement
2.1. Physical and mathematical model
The R-B convection o f cold water near its density maximum in a
rectangular cavity is considered, as shown in Fig. 1(a). The cross
section perpendicular to the direction o f gravity is square with
the length l and the height h o f the cavity. The sidewalls are insu
lated, and the top and bottom walls are cooled and heated at a con
stant temperature Tc and Th (Th > Tc), respectively. The aspect ratio
A = l/h is fixed at 2.
For simplifying the problem, some assumptions are applied in
this model: (1) The cold water is incompressible Newtonian fluid;
(2) the flow is in the laminar regime and the viscous dissipation is
neglected; (3) all the thermal physical properties are constant
except for the density in the gravitational term. The thermophysi
cal properties o f cold water at a reference temperature of
Tm = 4.029325 C are listed in Table 1. The nonlinear density-
temperature relation o f cold water is applied as:
q (T ) = q m[1 -| (T - Tm)/T 0 |q]; T0 = y--q (1)
where the maximum density is q m = 999.972 kg/m3. The thermal
expansion coefficient and the exponent are y = 9.297173 x 10-6 (C)-q
and q = 1.894816, respectively. Therefore, T0 = 452.357332 C.
 Y.-P. Hu et al. /International Journal o f Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017 ) 1065-1075 1067

Notably, the density inversion parameter 0 m is adopted to

describe the density inversion phenomenon, which determines
the location o f the maximum density temperature relative to the
hot and cold walls.
As mentioned before, the isothermal top and bottom walls with
0 = 0 and 1 respectively and the insulating sidewalls are pre
scribed for this problem. In addition, no-slip velocity conditions
on all solid-liquid boundaries are applied, i.e. V =0. In order to
explore the flow evolution o f all the flow patterns, the simulation
is initialized with the conduction state firstly, which can be consid
ered as a sudden jump o f heating power in an experimental situa
tion where the fluid is maintained below the convection threshold.
Once the stable convective flow patterns are obtained, they are
used as initial conditions in the following simulation by increasing
or decreasing the Rayleigh number to assure the flow evolution
and the stability range o f Ra, which is comparable to an experi
mental situation where the heating power is changed abruptly
once a pattern is stabilized. The Rayleigh number is varied in steps
o f DRa in the range o f 1/300 6 DRa/Ra 6 1/200 according to the
stability range o f the flow patterns, which assures enough
accuracy.
The local and overall heat transfer rates are measured by the
local and average Nusselt number, which are defined as:

d
Nu (8a)
dZ z=0

1 r T+Tp r a ra
Nuave 2 NudXdYdT (8b)
Fig. 1. Geometry and sample computational mesh o f the problem.
A Sp s 0 0

By introducing h, v/h, h2/v, vi/h2 as reference quantities o f the 2.2. Numerical procedure and validation
length, velocity, time, and pressure, the dimensionless governing
equations in the Cartesian coordinate system are expressed as: The governing equations are solved in the spatial computational
dU dV dW domain by employing the finite volume method. The diffusion
(2) terms and the convective terms are discretized through the
dX + dY + ~dZ
second-order central difference scheme and the QUICK scheme,
dU T,dU dU dP d2U d2U d2U respectively. The SIMPLE algorithm is adopted to handle the
(3) pressure-velocity coupling, and the fully implicit scheme is used
ds dX dY dZ dX dX2 dY2 @Z2
for the temporal discretization. Transient simulations based on
the Rayleigh number and the flow evolution are carried out with
@V udV VdV W d V - - d P dPL dPVL ddPV. (4) a varying time step from 104 to 5 x 103. At each time step, the
ds + U dX + V dY + W dZ = dY + dX2 + dY2 + dZ2
convergence is reached if the maximum relative error is less than
@W @W @W @W @P @2W @2W @2W 105 for each variable. The state is qualified as steady if the
observed variable doesnt change more than about 0.1%. The calcu
1 7 + UI X + V W + W -dZ = dZ + W + dY2 +
lation ends until the flow takes about the dimensionless time 132
(5) 265 to ensure that the R-B system reaches the steady state. The
+ Ra I ml?
dimensionless time is 13-26 times o f the heat diffusion time o f
the system.
d ..d ..d ...d 1 d2 d2 d2 A structured grid is applied to the computational domain with
U V W (6)
ds + dX + dY + dZ Pr dX2 + dY2 + dZ2 an elevated concentration o f nodes near the walls, and a uniform
spacing in the remainder interior o f the cavity, as shown in Fig. 1
These variables have their common meanings in fluid mechan
(b). A grid independence test is performed using different grids
ics and heat transfer, which are listed in the nomenclature. As
under the same condition. The results o f the average Nusselt num
shown in the governing equations, three parameters which govern
ber on the hot wall for different grids are given in Table 2. As can be
this problem are the Rayleigh number, the density inversion
seen from this table, all the grid sizes show very close results. Con
parameter, and the Prandtl number, which are defined as:
sidering both the numerical accuracy and the computing time, the
Ra gy(Th Tc)qh3/(va),Pr va, m (Tm Tc)/(Th Tc) (7) grids size o f 215,000 is chosen, and the minimum grid size is
4.55 x 106 and the maximum grid size is 8.91 x 106.
Table 1
In order to validate the current numerical scheme, the valida
Thermophysical properties o f cold water at Tm = 4.0293 C. tion simulation for the R-B convection o f cold water near its den
sity maximum in a cubical cavity has been carried out in our
Item conductivity kinematic thermal Prandtl
previous investigation [34]. An experiment on the R-B convection
viscosity diffusivity number
o f cold water in a cylinder is conducted and the experimental
Unit W/(m -K) m2/s m2/s -
results agree well with the numerical simulations in Ref. [35]. In
Value 0.562 1.567 x 106 1.354 x 107 11.573
addition, another validation simulation has also been performed
1068 Y.-P. Hu et al./International Journal o f Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017 ) 1065-1075
Table 2
Grid dependence o f Nuave.
0 m Ra Mesh
0.3 50,000 92,000
215,000
382,000
0.7 300,000 92,000
215,000
382,000
on the problem o f the R-B convection o f common fluid in a rectan
gular cavity, which is considered by Mukutmoni and Yang [18]. The
obtained results o f the average Nusselt number are very close to
the results in Ref. [18] with a deviation less than 0.5%, as listed
in Table 3. Therefore, these validations provide enough confidence
to the accuracy o f the current numerical scheme.
3. Results and discussion
In the present study, the flow patterns are examined in the
range o f 2000 6 Ra 6 300,000. The schematic diagram o f the stabil
ity ranges and transitions between the convective patterns o f the
R-B convection o f cold water in a rectangular cavity with the aspect
ratio o f 2 is firstly presented in Fig. 2. As can be seen from this dia
gram, abundant o f flow patterns are obtained and their transitions
are very different. Both the density inversion parameter and initial
conditions affect significantly the R-B convection o f cold water. The
results are discussed in detail in the following sections (without
taking into account the solutions obtained by symmetry). To clar
ify, some disconnected branches may be difficult to be detected
through the direct numerical simulation, which is reported in Refs.
[36,37].
3.1. Effects o f the density inversion param eter
First and foremost, the stable flow states at different density
inversion parameters are considered when the conduction states
are used as initial conditions. The fluid remains stationary when
the Rayleigh number is small. With the increase o f the Rayleigh
number, the fluid starts to flow provided there is a disturbance.
The critical Rayleigh number for the onset o f convection at
0 m = 0.3 is 5500, while the threshold value is 7300 for a cubical
cavity [34], which means that the stability is weakened with the
increase o f the aspect ratio. Depending on the Rayleigh number,
several typical flow states at 0 m = 0.3 are presented in Fig. 3,
where the maximum speed o f the hot ascending-flow and the cold
descending-flow is also labeled. Near the critical Rayleigh number
for the onset o f convection, the first flow pattern is a two-roll flow
state that has a cold descending-flow in the middle region and two
hot ascending-flows near the side o f the wall. This state is labelled
as FP1 0.3 flow pattern, where the FP denotes the flow pattern,
the number 1 represents the sequence number o f the flow pat
tern and the number 0.3 means the density inversion parameter.
Corresponding to the flow structure, the convex and concave
Table 3
Comparison o f the average Nusselt number for R-B convection of common fluid in a
rectangular cavity.
Ra
Nuave
Ref. [18] Present Deviation (%)
2500 1.030 1.035 0.49
2600 1.068 1.072 0.37
2700 1.106 1.104 0.18
deformation o f isothermal surfaces happens in the places o f the
ascending- and descending-flow. When the Rayleigh number is
N u ave increased from 123,000-300,000, a multiple-roll flow state, FP2
2.866
0.3 appears instead o f FP1 0.3 state, which is composed o f a hot
2.860 ascending-flow in a cross shape and four cold descending-flows
2.863 in the corner o f the cavity. The deformation o f isothermal surfaces
1.429 becomes much stronger with the increase o f the Rayleigh number.
1.437 For the two flow patterns, the flow happens nearly in the whole
1.436 region since the density maximum locates near the top wall at
0m = 0.3.
At 0 m = 0.5, the maximum density o f cold water locates in the
middle region o f the cavity. It means that the horizontal walls are
heated and cooled symmetrically relative to the temperature o f the
density maximum. The critical Rayleigh number for the onset of
convection increases to 21,900. The flow patterns near the onset
o f convection are presented in Fig. 4. The conductive state firstly
evolves into a FP1 0.5 state in the range o f the Rayleigh number
from 21,900 to 23,200. In this state, a three-roll flow pattern is
composed o f three hot ascending-flows near the sidewall and a
cold descending-flow in the main region o f the cavity, as shown
in Fig. 4(a). When the Rayleigh number exceeds 23,200, a four-
roll flow pattern, FP2 0.5 state appears instead, which has a hot
ascending-flow at each corner, as depicted in Fig. 4(b). But this
state only exists in a small range o f the Rayleigh number, and it
reverts to the FP1 0.5 state at 25,600 6 Ra 6 29,200. Finally, the
convection destabilizes and evolves into oscillatory flow at
Ra > 29,200.
When the density inversion parameter is increased to 0 m = 0.7,
the maximum density o f cold water locates near the hot wall. The
flow doesnt happen until the Rayleigh number reaches 196,000.
Fig. 5 presents different flow patterns at 0 m = 0.7. The conductive
state firstly transits into a FP1 0.7 state at 196,000 6 Ra 6 217,000.
In this state, four weak regions o f the hot ascending-flow exist near
the sidewall and a strong region o f the hot ascending-flow appears
in the center. At Ra = 218,000, the final state is the FP2 0.7 flow pat
tern, and there are multiple spots o f the hot ascending-flow in this
pattern. When the Rayleigh number is above 220,000, the spots of
the hot ascending-flow near the sidewall merge and form a FP3 0.7
flow pattern. For all the states, the flow only occurs in the lower
region o f the cavity as the fluid in the top region is stagnant. Cor
respondingly, the deformation o f isothermal surfaces isnt
observed at 0 = 0.3, just at 0 = 0.5 and 0.7.
The critical Rayleigh number for the onset o f the R-B convection
o f cold water in a rectangular cavity and the results in a cubical
cavity which are reported in Ref. [34] are listed in Table 4. Gener
ally speaking, the critical Rayleigh number for the onset o f convec
tion increases with the increase o f the density inversion parameter.
By comparing the results in the rectangular cavity with those in the
cubical cavity, it was found that the critical Rayleigh number is
reduced. For 0 m = 0.3, the critical Ra at A = 2 is just 75% o f the
value at A = 1, and this ratio is increased with the increase o f the
density inversion parameter, for example, it is 89% for 0m = 0.7.
It illustrates that the effect o f the aspect ratio on the critical Ra
decreases as the density inversion parameter increases. In addition,
many multiple-roll flow structures are discovered for the R-B con
vection o f cold water in the rectangular cavity. This phenomenon is
caused by the influence o f the sidewall o f the cavity. Compared
with the cubical cavity, the suppression o f the sidewall on the flow
in the rectangular cavity is weakened, which leads many abundant
flow patterns. Fig. 6 displays the contour o f vertical velocity in the
X = 0.5 plane at different density inversion parameters. When the
density inversion parameter is small, the fluid flow is observed
nearly in the whole cavity, which is just like the R-B convection
o f common fluid. However, the distribution o f vertical velocity is
different for various Rayleigh numbers. At a large density inversion
parameter, the flow is inhibited and forms a stagnant fluid layer at
 Y.-P. Hu et al./International Journal o f Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017 ) 1065-1075
4000 50000 100000
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of flow transitions between convective patterns for cold water in a rectangular cavity. * : flow patterns from a conductive state.
(a) i?a=6000 (b) ito=130000
FPL FPL
Fig. 3. Flow patterns at different Rayleigh number at 0 m = 0.3. Upper plot:
contours o f vertical velocity in Z = 0.5 plane. Solid lines denote a positive value
and dotted lines denote a negative value. Lower plot: isothermal surfaces o f 0 = 0.3
(upper), 0.5 (middle) and 0.7 (lower).
the top region. Corresponding to the contour o f vertical velocity,
Fig. 7 plots the distribution o f the absolute value o f vertical velocity
along the center line. It can be seen that the absolute value o f ver
tical velocity drops down sharply near the top. The reason is that
the density inversion produces the destabilizing temperature strat
ification in the lower part and a stabilizing one in the upper part of
the domain. Therefore, the convection is driven in the lower part
and damped in the upper one. In addition, the fluid layer thickness
o f convection decreases with the increase o f the density inversion
parameter.
3.2. Effects o f the initial condition
The flow patterns reported above are used as initial conditions
in the following simulation to investigate the flow evolution o f the
R-B convection o f cold water. Concerning 0 m = 0.3, it can be found
1069
---- *-Ra
----1
150000 200000 250000 300000
(a) Ra=23200 (b) Ra=25500
FPL FPL
Fig. 4. Flow patterns at different Rayleigh number at 0 m = 0.5.
the FP1 0.3 state remains stable in the range of
5400 6 Ra 6 206,000 when the FP1 0.3 state is used as an initial
condition. The FP1 0.3 state decays into a conductive state at
Ra < 5400 and evolves into a FP2 0.3 state at Ra > 206,000. The
FP2 0.3 state remains stable in a wide range o f the Rayleigh num
ber from 95,500 to 300,000, which illustrates that the FP2 0.3 state
has a wide stable range o f the Rayleigh number. When the Rayleigh
number is below 95,500, the FP2 0.3 state transits into the FP1 0.3
state. With the decrease o f the Rayleigh number, the FP2 0.3 state
transits into a new flow pattern, that is the FP3 0.3 state at
Ra 6 16,000. The evolution o f the flow pattern from the FP2 0.3
state to the FP3 0.3 state is shown in Fig. 8. The cold descending-
flow in the corner o f the FP2 0.3 state merges gradually, and finally
surrounds the hot ascending-flow in the center and forms the FP3
0.3 state. As the FP3 0.3 state is used as an initial condition, the sta
bility range o f the Rayleigh number for the FP3 0.3 state is
4330 6 Ra 6 16,200. When the Rayleigh number is above 16,200,
the FP3 0.3 state evolves into the FP1 0.3 state, though the FP3
0.3 state doesnt appear in the flow branch o f the FP1 0.3 state.
1070 Y.-P. Hu et al./International Journal o f Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017 ) 1065-1075

Fig. 5. Flow patterns at different Rayleigh number at 0 m = 0.7. Upper plot: contours o f vertical velocity in the Z = 0.25 plane. Solid lines denote a positive value and dotted
lines denote a negative value. Lower plot: isothermal surfaces o f 0 = 0.3 (upper), 0.5 (m iddle) and 0.7 (lower).

Table 4 23,300 6 Ra 6 25,500. Below and above this range, the FP2 0.5
The critical Ra for the onset o f R-B convection. state transits into the FP1 0.5 state. Fig. 9 describes the transition
0 m Present study ( A = 2) Ref. [34] (A = 1) Racri (A = 2)/Rac r i (A = 1) process from the FP2 0.5 state to the FP1 0.5 state at Ra = 25,600.
0.3 5500 7300 75%
At s = 23.8, the strength o f the hot flow in the corner o f the cavity
0.5 21,900 26,400 83% decreases and the hot flow with the form o f a circle appears in the
0.7 196,000 221,000 89% middle region. As time goes on, the hot flow in the middle region
moves down gradually to the bottom. The FP1 0.5 state is finally
formed at s = 60.1. Compared with the flow branch at 0 m = 0.3,
When the Rayleigh number is below 4330, the conduction state no new flow state appears in the branch o f stable flow patterns
replaces the FP3 0.3 state. at 0 m = 0.5.
Concerning 0 m = 0.5, the FP1 0.5 state is stable for the Rayleigh Concerning 0 m = 0.7, the FP1 0.7 state is stable at
number between 21,000 and 31,700 in the flow branch o f the FP1 192,000 6 Ra 6 217,000 in its flow branch. The FP1 0.7 state
0.5 state. The system recovers to the conductive state below this evolves into the FP2 0.7 state at Ra = 218,000, and the evolution
range, and above this range loses its stability and evolves into an is shown in Fig. 10. The hot flow near the sidewall transits into a
oscillatory flow. When the FP2 0.5 state is used as an initial condi spot pattern, and the hot flow in the center moves down to the bot
tion, the stability range o f the FP2 0.5 state is assured as tom at s = 27.4. W ith time increasing, the strength o f both hot and

Fig. 6. Contours o f vertical velocity in the X = 0.5 plane.

 Y.-P. Hu et al./International Journal o f Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017 ) 1065-1075 1071

Fig. 7. Distribution o f the absolute value o f vertical velocity along center line (X = 0.5, Y = 0.5).

cold flow increases, and finally forms a FP2 0.7 state. In the range of
222.000 6 Ra 6 300,000, the FP1 0.7 state transits into a FP3 0.7
state. Using the FP3 0.7 state as an initial condition, its found that
the stable range o f the Rayleigh number for the FP3 0.7 state is
213.000 6 Ra 6 300,000. The FP3 0.7 state transits into the FP1
0.7 state at 194,000 6 Ra < 213,000, and decays into a conductive
state at Ra < 194,000.
Three new flow patterns appear in the flow branch o f the FP2
0.7, as displayed in Fig. 11. In the range o f 203,000 6 Ra 6 300,000,
the FP2 0.7 state remains stable. Below Ra = 203,000, the FP2 0.7
state transits into new flow patterns. Firstly, a FP4 0.7 [Fig. 11(a)]
state with two circular hot ascending-flows with great flow
strength in the middle region and two sector hot ascending-flows
with weak flow strength near the sidewall is obtained at
199.000 6 Ra < 203,000. The convexity deformation takes place in
the middle region o f the isothermal surfaces. When the Rayleigh
number is between 195,000 and 199,000, the FP2 0.7 state transits
into a FP5 0.7 state. In the pattern o f the FP5 0.7, the number o f the
circular hot ascending flow increases to three, and the hot flow
region near the sidewall expands, as shown in Fig. 11(b). With
the decrease o f the Rayleigh number, the system decays into a
FP6 0.7 state [Fig. 11(c)] at 193,000 6 Ra 6 194,000 and a conduc
tive state at Ra < 193,000. Since the FP6 0.7 state is near the thresh
old o f the convection, the maximum speed is small. Only one
circular hot flow with a weak region exists in this pattern.
In the FP4 0.7 flow branch, the FP4 0.7 state is stable at
190.000 6 Ra 6 204,000 and then evolves into the FP2 0.7 state
at 204,000 < Ra 6 245,000. A new state FP7 0.7 is obtained at
Ra = 246,000, as shown in Fig. 12. The FP7 0.7 state is a four-roll
flow pattern which is formed by three parallel hot flows and two
parallel cold flows. It has a wide stability range of
218.000 < Ra 6 300,000. At a large Rayleigh number, the phe
nomenon about the vertex splitting is observed in the hot flow
region. The FP7 0.7 state evolves into the FP4 0.7 state at
1072 Y.-P. Hu et al./International Journal o f Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017 ) 1065-1075

Fig. 10. Evolution from FP1 0.7 state to FP2 0.7 state at Ra = 218,000.

(a) Z?a=200000 (b) Ra= 198000 (c) Ra= 194000

FPo7 FPqj FK i
Fig. 11. Flow patterns in the flow branch of FP2 0.7.

stable flow patterns which are initialized with the conduction state
at 0 m = 0.5. The stability ranges o f all the flow patterns and their
flow evolution are determined by changing the initial conditions
and the Rayleigh number. Table 5 lists the stability ranges o f all
the flow patterns. The stability range o f the Rayleigh number for
each flow pattern is different since there exists a great difference
in the distributions o f the flow and thermal fields for various flow
patterns. In most flow branches, the critical Rayleigh number o f the
flow transition from the flow patterns to the conductive states is
smaller than that o f the flow transition from the conductive states
Fig. 12. FP7 0.7 state at Ra = 246,000.

Table 5
Ra < 204,000. Furthermore, the FP7 0.7 state can also evolve toward Stability range of all flow patterns.
a FP2 0.7 state at 204,000 6 Ra < 217,000 though the FP7 0.7 state
H m Flow pattern Corresponding Fig. Range o f stability
isnt observed in the FP2 0.7 branch. When the FP5 0.7 is used as an
0.3 FP1 0.3 Fig. 3(a) 5400 6 Ra 6 206,000
initial condition, the stability range o f the FP5 0.7 state is assured
FP2 0.3 Fig. 3(b) 95,500 6 Ra 6 300,000
at 185,000 6 Ra 6 204,000; above this range, the FP5 0.7 state FP3 0.3 Fig. 8 4330 6 Ra 6 16,200
evolves into a FP2 0.7 state. The FP6 0.7 state remains stable only
0.5 FP1 0.5 Fig. 4(a) 21,000 6 Ra 6 31,700
in a small range o f 193,000 6 Ra 6 194,000 in its branch, and FP2 0.5 Fig. 4(b) 23,300 6 Ra 6 25,500
evolves into the FP5 0.7 state at 194,000 < Ra 6 204,000.
0.7 FP1 0.7 Fig. 5(a) 192,000 6 Ra 6 217,000
Its found the initial condition influences the R-B convection FP2 0.7 Fig. 5(b) 203,000 6 Ra 6 300,000
greatly. The transitions between the flow patterns in each flow FP3 0.7 Fig. 5(c) 213,000 6 Ra 6 300,000
branch are totally different. A new flow pattern appears in the FP4 0.7 Fig. 11(a) 190,000 6 Ra 6 204,000
FP2 0.3 branch at 0 m = 0.3, three new flow patterns in the FP2 FP5 0.7 Fig. 11(b) 185,000 6 Ra 6 204,000
FP6 0.7 Fig. 11(c) 193,000 6 Ra 6 194,000
0.7 branch and a new one in the FP4 0.7 branch at 0 m = 0.7. FP7 0.7 Fig. 12 218,000 6 Ra 6 300,000
However, no new flow pattern appears in the branch o f the two
 Y.-P. Hu et al. /International Journal o f Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017 ) 1065-1075
to convection. For example, the conductive state o f 0 m = 0.3 loses
its stability and transits into the FP1 0.3 state at Ra = 5500, while
the FP1 0.3 state decays into the conductive state at Ra = 5400
when the FP1 0.3 state is used as an initial condition. It means that
there exists hysteresis for the flow transition, which is also discov
ered in the previous studies on the R-B convection o f common fluid
and cold water [10,31]. The R-B convection o f cold water in a rect
angular cavity at 0 m = 0.5 can evolve into an oscillatory flow at a
small Rayleigh number. Therefore, the FP1 0.5 and FP2 0.5 flow
patterns are just stable near the threshold o f the convection with
a small range o f the Rayleigh number.
3.3. Oscillation flow
When the Rayleigh number exceeds a certain critical value, the
flow becomes unsteady and behaves an apparent oscillatory
behavior. However, the R-B convection o f cold water in a cubical
cavity is steady in the computation range o f Ra 6 300,000 in Ref.
[34]. The flow evolution in a period and the time history o f the
local temperature at a monitoring point are displayed in Figs. 13
Fig. 14. Time history o f local temperature at a monitoring point (X = 0.5, Y = 0.5, Z = 0.5) (a) Ra = 40,000; (b ) Ra = 80,000.
1073
and 14, respectively. At Ra = 40,000, four small hot flows and a cir
cular one are observed in the corner and center at s = s0, respec
tively. As time goes on, the hot flow in the center moves towards
the right corner gradually. It merges with the cell in the right cor
ner after half a period. Then, it splits from the cell in the right cor
ner again and moves to the center region at s0 + 3/4sp, as shown in
Fig. 13(a). It illustrates that the movement o f the hot flow in the
middle region is the main factor that results in the oscillatory flow.
In Fig. 14(a), the local temperature varies in a wide range from
0 = 0.4 to 0 = 0.9 with a large oscillation amplitude, and the
dimensionless oscillation period is sp = 16.77.
As the Rayleigh number is increased to 80,000, the two hot
flows at the bottom corner merge into a long strip o f cell and
occupy the region near the bottom sidewall, and the cells with a
larger velocity becomes irregular, which leads that the symmetry
is broken at s = s0. In this case, the movement o f the hot flow in
the middle region is also responsible for the oscillatory flow, as dis
played in Fig. 13(b). Fig. 14(b ) shows the time history o f the local
temperature at Ra = 80,000. Compared with that at Ra = 40,000,
the oscillation amplitude is decreased. The dimensionless
1074 Y.-P. Hu et al./International Journal o f Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017 ) 1065-1075

Fig. 15. Local Nusselt number distribution on the hot wall.

oscillation period is reduced to sp = 4.26, which is only about a

quarter o f sp = 16.77 at Ra = 40,000. It means that the oscillation
gets more apparent with the increase o f the Rayleigh number.
The periodic solutions presented in the study might become steady
at higher Rayleigh number just like the R-B convection o f common
fluid which is reported in Refs. [18,19].

3.4. Heat transfer perform ance

Fig. 15 gives the distribution o f the local Nusselt number on the

hot wall at different density inversion parameters, which shows a
great difference for different flow patterns. The maximum value of
the local Nusselt number appears where the cold fluid descends
toward the hot wall, while the minimum value exists where the
hot fluid ascends from the hot wall. The density inversion param
eter affects greatly the local heat transfer rates on the hot wall, and
the effect becomes more obvious with the increase o f the density
inversion parameter. For example, the maximum value o f the local
Nusselt number at 0 m = 0.5 is only about one-third o f that at
0 m = 0.3 when the Rayleigh number is 25,000, and the maximum
at 0 m = 0.7 reduces to about one-fifth o f that at 0 m = 0.3 when the
Rayleigh number is 260,000.
The average Nusselt number is used to describe the overall heat
transfer ability. The variation o f the average Nusselt number at
different density inversion parameters is plotted in Fig. 16. When
the Rayleigh number is below the threshold o f the convection,
the conduction is the dominant mode o f heat transfer. Therefore,
the average Nusselt number equals 1 at a small Rayleigh number.
W ith the increase o f the Rayleigh number, the average Nusselt
number on the hot wall increases because o f the enhanced convec
tion. The heat transfer ability for each flow branch is different since
the distributions o f the flow and thermal fields are totally different
for various flow patterns. At 0 m = 0.3, Nuave for the FP1 0.3 state is
slightly larger than that for the FP3 0.3 state when the Rayleigh
number is small, while Nuave for the FP1 0.3 state is lower than that
for the FP2 0.3 state when the Rayleigh number is increased. At
0 m = 0.5, the heat transfer ability o f the FP1 0.5 state is better than
that o f the FP2 0.3 state. The flow gets much stronger when the
flow is in the oscillatory regime. As a result, the increase o f the
average Nusselt number with the Rayleigh number o f oscillatory
flow is faster than that o f the steady flow. At 0 m = 0.7, both the Ra
FP5 0.7 state and the FP7 0.7 state have the highest Nuave at a small
Rayleigh number and a large Rayleigh number, respectively. In : FPo.7; a : FPj.,; o: FPa7; v: FPj.7; : FPa7; +: FPo.7; x : FPa7
addition, the average Nusselt number decreases rapidly with the
Fig. 16. Variation o f the average Nusselt number on the hot wall red: Ra-increasing
increase o f the density inversion parameter at a given Rayleigh course; blue: Ra-decreasing course. (For interpretation of the references to colour in
number. For example, the maximum Nuave is 5.14 at 0 m = 0.3 this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
 Y.-P. Hu et al. /International Journal o f Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2017 ) 1065-1075
and Ra = 300,000, while it is reduced to 1.53 at 0 m = 0.3. It illus
trates that the density maximum phenomenon inhibits the R-B
convective heat transfer. Compared with the results in a cubical
cavity [34], the average Nusselt number in a rectangular cavity is
higher under the same condition, which means that the heat trans
fer ability is enhanced.
4. Conclusion
This investigation aims at the R-B convection o f cold water near
its density maximum in a rectangular cavity with the aspect ratio
o f 2. The flow structures, the flow branch, the oscillatory flow and
the heat transfer characteristics are exhibited systematically.
Based on the presented simulation data and discussion, the major
conclusions can be drawn as follows:
(1) The density maximum phenomenon affects significantly the
R-B convection o f cold water in a rectangular cavity. The
critical Rayleigh number for the onset o f convection in a
rectangular cavity is smaller than that in a cubical cavity,
and the effect o f the aspect ratio on the critical value
decreases with the increase o f the density inversion param
eter. Additionally, the density inversion produces a destabi
lizing temperature stratification in the lower part and a
stabilizing one in the upper part o f the R-B system.
(2) The flow transition in each flow branch are totally different,
which means that the initial condition influences the R-B
convection. Many multiple-roll flow patterns are obtained
for the R-B convection o f cold water in a rectangular cavity,
which is different from those in a cubical cavity.
(3) The flow patterns are just stable near the threshold o f the
convection, and then the R-B convection becomes unsteady
and behaves an apparent oscillatory behavior at 0 m = 0.5.
The movement o f the hot flow in the middle region plays
the main role for the oscillatory flow.
(4) The distribution o f the local Nusselt number shows a great
difference for different flow patterns at various density
inversion parameters. Each flow branch also has different
heat transfer abilities, which corresponds to different flow
character. Furthermore, compared with the results in a cubi
cal cavity, the heat transfer ability o f the R-B convection of
cold water in a rectangular cavity is enhanced.
Acknowledgement
This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation
o f China (Grant No. 51376199). W e thank Ms. Li Zhang for helpful
grammatical edits.
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