natural convection/vertical flat plate
 

Hi,

I'm trying to model 2D laminar free convection on a vertical flat plate.

- My domain is 1m(height)x 10m(width)

- Isothermal wall on the left boundary where the heating starts 1/3 of the way up the wall

- Symmetry on the right boundary, pressure outlet and inlet on the top and bottom respectively

- incompressible ideal gas model for variable density

- body force weighted solver

My problem is in my results. The buoyant flow is there, however there is a small, but noticeable downflow throughout the domain. When I compare the pressures across the inlet and outlet, there is a significant difference which seems to be driving this downward flow, even though I had set them both to be constant at 0 Pa.

Is there something I am missing in setting up the pressure boundary conditions?

Re: natural convection/vertical flat plate
 

Try switching on Operating density (Define->Operating Conditions), and set Operating density by value of density of ambient flow.

Re: natural convection/vertical flat plate
 

Thanks for your response

I tried as you said to change the operating density to the ambient value but it seems to have had no effect in terms of reducing the downward flow

Have you solved your problem?