Thermo-bioconvection in horizontal wavy-walled porous annulus

Abstract

The present investigation centers around a numerical study of the impact of the presence of phototactic microorganisms on the thermo-bioconvection inside a wavy-walled horizontal porous annulus that is saturated with a Newtonian fluid. Consequently, an equation describing the movement of the microorganism cells is added to the mathematical model of natural convection. The thermal equilibrium, Oberbeck–Boussinesq approximations and Darcy law are taken into consideration. The transformed dimensionless partial differential equations with the temperature-concentration-stream function formulation are discretized applying the alternate direction implicit finite difference scheme. Results confirm that in the absence of microorganisms the Nusselt number decreases with the increase of the amplitude of wall waviness. It was also observed that the wall waviness influence the thermo-bioconvective instabilities and the flow regime structure.