The present study is concerned with natural convection ventilation in a two dimensional fully open enclosure (cavity) with thermally stratified ambient for both transient and steady-state flow. The left hand vertical wall of the enclosure is heated and the right hand facing boundary is open, with the top and bottom boundaries insulated. The numerical solutions will be obtained by solving the Navier-Stokes equations and the temperature transport equation on a non-staggered grid using an unsteady second-order finite-volume scheme with a pressure correction equation used to simultaneously provide an update for the pressure field and enforce the divergence free condition. Results will be presented for Rayleigh numbers in the range 1 × 105 to 1 × 1010 with Prandtl numbers in the range 0.2 to 1.0. It will be shown that the flow transits from steady to unsteady, at full development, with increasing Rayleigh number for Pr <= 1.0, as observed for the similar closed enclosure flow. For higher Prandtl numbers the flow is steady at full development for the full range of Rayleigh numbers considered, again as for the similar fully closed enclosure. Streamline and temperature contour plots will be presented to illustrate the basic flow behaviours and to demonstrate the effect of the Prandtl number.

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