The present work is addressed to the numerical study of transient laminar natural convection in an open space and induced by a line heat source
The governing equations full Navier Stokes and energy equations with primitive variables are discretized in a staggered grid by a control volume approach
The equations for the uid and solid line heat source phases are solved simultaneously using a segregated technique
Some of the physical and thermophysical properties of the uid air such as density thermal conductivity and viscosity were considered to vary with temperature
The results show that the energy equation reaches the steady state condition more rapidly than the momentum equations
Hence at that time the distribution of temperature does not show any change within the accuracy of the solution while the distribution of the velocity still varies
The steadystate results obtained via the timemarching solution show good agreement with the published steadystate selfsimilar results in the vicinity of the centerline of the plume
Also the steadystate streamlines compare well with the published experimental results

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