Natural convection in vertical cavities with internal heat generating porous medium

Abstract

Steady natural convection heat transfer in a two dimensional cavity filled with a uniform heat generating, saturated porous medium has been studied. The boundary conditions were: Two isothermal walls at different temperatures, two horizontal adiabatic walls. The aspect ratio was varied from 0.1 to 10 and the Rayleigh number from 100 to 108. The results are presented in terms of the isotherms and stream functions, the temperature variation and maximum temperature in the cavity and heat transfer from the vertical walls. The study indicates that asymmetric vertical boundary conditions with θ h >0 has an important effect on the temperature and flow fields as well as on the heat transfer characteristics of the cavity with highly asymmetric results. Various heat transfer modes are identified dependent on the Rayleigh number and the aspect ratio.