The motion and interaction of three-dimensional plumes in a thin vertical layer

Direct three-dimensional numerical modeling of the plumes interaction and its lifting dynamics in a thin vertical layer heated from below by several local sources is carried out with the help of the OpenFOAM computational package. This integrable platform is meant for calculations in the area of continuous media mechanics. Animated images for different numbers of heaters are obtained to demonstrate the behavior of thermal plums at an arbitrary instant of time. The plumes of the viscous-nondiffusive type are considered predominantly. It has been shown that the temperature field inhomogeneity of the same plumes disperses slowly in the plane perpendicular to the stream velocity in comparison with the convective heat transfer in the direction of fluid movement. The calculations based on the equations of thermal convection in addition to the analysis of velocity and pressure fields permit one to explain the effects of plumes mutual interaction and attraction to the nearest narrow vertical boundary.