Laminar flow and heat transfer in Rayleigh–Bénard convection with shear

Three- and two-dimensional laminar flow in a cavity heated from below and cooled from above, with and without lid motion, was investigated numerically. The effects of applied shear at the upper lid on the flow structure and heat transfer in a shallow cavity were studied and results are reported for Ra=3500 and 4000 with Pr=5.84 (water). The lid moves parallel to either the ξ or ζ direction. The numerical predications and flow visualization results showed that the lid motion destroys all types of convective cells due to heating from below for finite size cavities. Two-dimensional heat transfer results compare favorably with those based on a three-dimensional model for Gr/Re2≤1.