This article analyzes the detailed heat transfer phenomena during natural convection within tilted square cavities with isothermally cooled walls (BC and DA) and hot wall AB is parallel to the insulated wall CD. A penalty finite element analysis with bi-quadratic elements has been used to investigate the results in terms of streamlines, isotherms and heatlines. The present numerical procedure is performed over a wide range of parameters (10 3 ≤ Ra ≤ 10 5,0.015 ≤ Pr ≤ 1000,0°≤ ≤ 90°). Secondary circulations cells are observed near corner regions of cavity for all 's at Pr = 0.015 with Ra = 10 5. Two asymmetric flow circulation cells are found to occupy the entire cavity for = 15°at Pr = 0.7 and Pr = 1000 with Ra = 10 5. Heatlines indicate that the cavity with inclination angle = 15°corresponds to large convective heat transfer from the wall AB to wall DA whereas the heat transfer to wall BC is maximum for = 75°. Heat transfer rates along the walls are obtained in terms of local and average Nusselt numbers and they are explained based on gradients of heatfunctions. Average Nusselt number distributions show that heat transfer rate along wall DA is larger for lower inclination angle ( = 15°) whereas maximum heat transfer rate along wall BC occur for higher inclination angle ( = 75°). © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.