THERMAL-CONVECTION IN A VERTICAL SLOT WITH LATERAL HEATING

Thermal convection of a fluid contained in a two-dimensional vertical rectangle under a uniform horizontal temperature gradient is studied w ith the aid of numerical simulations of the governing equations of mot ion. The velocity is assumed to satisfy the rigid boundary conditions (b.c.) on all the boundary walls whereas the temperature satisfies the isothermal and the adiabatic b.c. on the vertical and the horizontal side walls respectively. The Prandtl number Pr of the fluid is Pr = 0. 71 and the aspect ratio A of the rectangle is taken as A = 6. With inc rease of the Grashof number G characterizing the intensity of the ther mal gradient, the motion successively exhibits different temporal beha vior: steady --> periodic --> quasi-periodic with two fundamental freq uencies --> chaotic where the transition to chaos is caused by the dis ruption of the T-2-torus due to the phase-locking. The spatial pattern s associated with the above temporal oscillations are also given using the contour plots of the temperature field of the convection.