Boundary and inertia effects on conjugate mixed convection heat transfer from a vertical plate fin in a high-porosity porous medium

Abstract

Conjugate mixed convection heat transfer along a vertical plate fin embedded in a saturated high-porosity porous medium has been studied. A local non-similarity solution, up to the third level of truncation, has been obtained for convective flow in the porous medium. The effects of solid boundary and inertia forces which have been neglected in the Darcy flow model were taken into account. Results were obtained for Pr = 7, 20, 50, and other parameters in the range of 0 ⩽ Ω ⩽ 2.0 and 0 ⩽ Ncc ⩽ 2.0. For pure forced convection and low Ncc (nearly isothermal), the error resulting from omitting the boundary and inertia forces decreases with increasing downstream distance. For mixed convection flow the effects of boundary and inertia on local heat transfer coefficient and local heat flux become very significant at large values of Ncc, especially downstream.