Influence of Non-Uniform Sinusoidal Periodic Bottom Boundary Condition on Natural Convection in an Isotropic Porous Enclosure

Abstract

A comprehensive numerical investigation on the natural convection in an isotropic porous enclosure is presented. All the walls of the enclosure are adiabatic except the bottom wall which is partially heated and cooled by sinusoidal temperature profile. The governing equations were written under assumption of Brinkman-extended non-Darcy model, including material derivative, and then solved by numerically using spectral element method (SEM). The heat transfer and fluid flow mechanisms in isotropic case are governed by periodicity parameter (N) Rayleigh Number (Ra), Darcy number (Da), aspect ratio (A), Prandtl number (Pr) and media permeability (K). The main emphasize is given on effect of N on local heat transfer as well as mechanism of heat transfer and fluid flow in enclosure. The results shows that, as the periodicity is decreased on increasing N the absolute value of Nux at the bottom left corner point increases. For odd values of N, the local heat transfer profile is symmetric about the line x=0.5, which is consequence of symmetric boundary condition at the bottom wall of the enclosure. The entire flow is governed by two type convective cells: (i) rotating clockwise (ii) rotating anticlockwise. Furthermore for even values of N cells rotating anticlockwise are dominated and covered the entire domain. In particular the present analysis shows that, different periodicity of temperature boundary condition has the significant effect on the flow mechanism and consequently on the heat transfer rate.