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Abstract

Numerical investigations, using Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) based methodology, were carried out to determine the characteristics of the velocity field in a thin wall cavity using rectangular slots with free ventilation area of about 3100mm². The computation of the cavity flow in this study was based on three different flow modes: the pressure-driven, the buoyancy-driven and the combined pressure- and buoyancy-driven flow modes in a single-sided ventilation approach. The numerical results obtained with the computational fluid dynamics fluent package using the standard k-ε turbulence model show that a maximum velocity of about 6m/s was obtained for ambient temperature ranging from -20 to 20^oC under the buoyancy-driven flow mode. This velocity of the cavity flow under this flow mode was shown to be significantly greater than a maximum velocity of about 1.5m/s obtained under the pressure-driven and the combined flow modes. The predicted velocity fields for all flow modes employed in this study are characterised by multi-cellular patterns of airflow.