NUMERICAL STUDY OF HIGH RAYLEIGH NUMBER CONVECTION IN A VERTICAL POROUS ENCLOSURE

Abstract

The results of a numerical simulation of natural convection in a vertical rectangular porous enclosure subjected to a horizontal temperature differential are presented. By use of the stable exponential differencing computation scheme, values of the Darcy-Rayleigh number R have been obtained which are substantially larger than those in previous numerical studies. The present results provide a clear physical picture of the development process as R is increased toward asymptotically high values (R →). Correlations for the heat transfer rate are presented for four different aspect ratios and are compared with earlier experimental and theoretical results.