Natural Convection in a Rocking Square Enclosure: Experimental Results

Experimental results for the natural convection in a rocking enclosure are presented. A square closed cavity heated from below and cooled from above periodically turns around of its horizontal symmetry central line. The oscillation amplitude was from -15 deg to 15 deg, and four time periods were employed (30 min, 60 min, 90 min, and 120 min) for three established Rayleigh numbers (3x10(4), 6x10(4), and 1x10(5)). High purity glycerin was used as the working fluid, and particle image velocimetry (PIV) was employed to obtain the velocity fields. The obtained flow patterns have a strong dependence on the Rayleigh number. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4003554]