Analysis of Heat and Mass Transfer in a Porous Cavity Containing Water near Its Density Maximum

Murugan Muthtamilselvan
DOI: 10.4236/am.2011.28127                

Abstract

A numerical study is performed on steady natural convection inside a porous cavity with cooling from the side walls. The governing equations are solved by finite volume method. Representative results illustrating the effects of the thermal Rayleigh number, density inversion parameter, buoyancy ratio and Schmidt number on the contour maps of the fluid flow, temperature and concentration are reported. It is found that the number of cells which form in the cavity varies primarily with the density inversion parameter and is always even due to the symmetry imposed by the cold sidewalls. In addition that the flow becomes weaker as the Darcy number decreases from the pure fluid limit towards the Darcy-flow limit.

Keywords

Convection, Double Diffusive, Porous Medium, Finite Volume Method

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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