PIV measurements of the flow field inside an enclosed cubical cavity in natural convection

The natural convective velocity field in an enclosed air-filled cubical cavity with two opposing isothermal faces and the remaining four sides having a well-defined linear temperature rise from the cold to the hot face has been measured at different physical orientations and Rayleigh (Ra) numbers. In particular, two components of the velocity at the mid-plane have been measured by using particle image velocimetry (PIV) at Ra = 10⁶ and 6 × 10⁶ at each of two different physical orientations: heating-from-the-side (HFS), and heating-from-below (HFB). The 95% confidence limit uncertainties in the measured velocity vectors are about 2% for laminar flow. The accuracy and integrity of the experiments were validated by the comparison to some well-established CFD results at the HFS orientation at Ra = 10⁶. It was concluded that the experimental method is sound and so findings at other orientations and at other values of Ra should have an accuracy consistent with the findings of the uncertainty analysis. Therefore, the other results can be confidently used as benchmark data for testing CFD codes. The turbulence intensities at the mid-plane are also presented.