A numerical analysis is carried out for the unsteady and steady, two-dimensional, laminar natural convection heat transfer in a square partial cavity. The partial cavity consists of two horizontal adiabatic surfaces, a vertical hot surface and a cold surface with varied opening. The results are obtained for Ra = 10~3-10~6 and Y0 = 0.0-1.0. This study shows that the opening size has significant effect on the flow and heat transfer in partial cavity, and the. extent of its effect changes with different Rayleigh numbers.