Use of momentum interpolation method and evaluation of higher-order bounded convection schemes for oscillatory natural convection of liquid metal

A study on the use of momentum interpolation method and higher-order bounded convection schemes for simulation of oscillatory natural convection of liquid metal in a square cavity is presented. The original Rhie and Chow scheme is modified for unsteady flows to obtain the converged solutions which are independent of the time step size. Two higher-order bounded convection schemes, SOUCUP and COPLA are evaluated, together with HYBRID and QUICK, to test their capability for predicting the oscillatory natural convection. The calculations are performed forG _r=10⁷, Pr=0.005 employing 42x42 and 82x82 nonuniform grids. The COPLA and QUICK schemes have shown the capability of predicting the oscillatory motion while the HYBRID and SOUCUP schemes have not. This study has been carried out under the Nuclear Research and Development program by Korean Ministry of Science and Technology.