A NUMERICAL STUDY OF NON-DARCIAN NATURAL CONVECTION IN A VERTICAL ENCLOSURE FILLED WITH A POROUS MEDIUM

Abstract

A numerical study of non-Darcian natural convection in a vertical enclosure filled with a porous medium is performed. The flow is modeled using the Brinkman-Forchheimer-extended Darcy equations. The governing equations are solved with the SIMPLER algorithm and good agreement with previously reported numerical and experimental results is found. An order of magnitude analysis and the numerical results demonstrate the importance of non-Darcian effects. For high Darcy numbers (Da > 10⁻⁴), both extensions are of the same order of magnitude and must be used simultaneously. In addition, Forch-heimer's extension must be included for Pr ≤ 1.0 and all Darcy numbers. Finally, Nusselt number correlations are presented for three different ranges of the Darcy number covering wide ranges of the governing parameters.