Buoyancy-driven convection in superposed air-water layers in a cavity

Buoyancy-driven convection in superposed air-water layers within a cavity has been considered. The convection patterns obtained numerically have been compared with experimental results. The numerical solution has been derived by solving the coupled flow and heat transfer equations by the finite volume method. A commercial package is employed in this respect. Temperature field measurements in the fluid layers have been carried out using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The interface temperature and the width-averaged Nusselt number obtained numerically are seen to be in good agreement with experiments. However, the detailed flow patterns and the interface deformation show considerable differences.