NUMERICAL MODELING OF BUOYANCY-DRIVEN FLOWS IN A ROTATING CYLINDRICALCAVITY - COMPARISON OF A FINITE-ELEMENT MODEL WITH A SPECTRAL MODEL

A finite element model is developed for the prediction of the motion o f rotating Boussinesq fluid driven by buoyancy. The computations are p erformed for the axisymmetric regime in an annular cavity for Reynolds number varying from 0 to 2500. The results are compared with those of an earlier study of this problem using a spectral Tau-Chebyshev metho d. The good agreement found assesses the finite element model. Finally , a complementary convergence analysis gives the sensitivity of the mo del to mesh refinement.