  The mixing in three-dimensional enclosures is investigated numerically using
flow in cubical cavity as a geometrically simple model of various natural and
engineering flows. The mixing rate is evaluated for up to the value of Reynolds
number Re=2000 for several representative scenarios of moving cavity walls:
perpendicular motion of the parallel cavity walls (Case A), motion of a wall in
its plane along its diagonal (Case B1), motion of two perpendicular walls
outward the common edge (Case B2), and the parallel cavity walls in motion
either in parallel directions (Case B3) or in opposite directions (Case B4).
The mixing rates are compared to the well-known benchmark case in which one
cavity wall moves along its edge (Case C). The intensity of mixing for the
considered cases was evaluated for (i) mixing in developing cavity flow
initially at rest, which is started by the impulsive motion of cavity wall(s),
and (ii) mixing in the developed cavity flow. For both cases, the initial
interface of the two mixing fluids is a horizontal plane located at the middle
of the cavity. The mixing rates are ranked from fastest to slowest for twenty
time units of flow mixing. The pure convection mixing is modeled as a limit
case to reveal convective mechanism of mixing. Mixing of fluids with different
densities is modeled to show the advantage in terms of mixing rate of genuinely
3-D cases A and B1. Grid convergence study and comparison with published
numerical solutions for 3-D and 2-D cavity flows are presented. The effects of
three-dimensionality of cavity flow on the mixing rate are discussed.
