Special session: computational predictability of natural convection flows in enclosures

Modern thermal design practices often rely on a ''predictive'' simulation capability--although predictability is rarely quantified and often difficult to confidently achieve in practice. The computational predictability of natural convection in enclosures is a significant issue for many industrial thermal design problems. One example of this is the design for mitigation of optical distortion due to buoyancy-driven flow in large-scale laser systems. In many instances the sensitivity of buoyancy-driven enclosure flows can be linked to the presence of multiple bifurcation points that yield laminar thermal convective processes that transition from steady to various modes of unsteady flow. This behavior is brought to light by a problem as ''simple'' as a differentially-heated tall rectangular cavity (8:1 height/width aspect ratio) filled with a Boussinesq fluid with Pr = 0.71--which defines, at least partially, the focus of this special session. For our purposes, the differentially-heated cavity provides a virtual fluid dynamics laboratory.