Abstract
In the present work, an important basic flow phenomena, the natural convection induced flow, is studied numerically. Three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations along with the temperature equation are solved on the basis of finite difference method. Generalized coordinate system is used so that sufficient grid resolution could be achieved in the body surface boundary layer region. Differential terms with respect to time are approximated by forward differences, diffusions terms are approximated by the implicit Euler form, convection terms in the Navier-Stokes equations are approximated by the third order upwind difference scheme. The heat flux at the body surface of heater is specified. The results of calculation showed a satisfactory agreement with the measured data and led to a good understanding of the overall flow and thermal behavior inside electronic equipment cabinet model which is very difficult, if not impossible, to gather by experiment.
