Mixed Convection in a Vertical Porous Channel

A numerical study of mixed convection in a vertical channel filled with a porous medium including the effect of inertial forces is studied by taking into account the effect of viscous and Darcy dissipations. The flow is modeled using the Brinkman–Forchheimer-extended Darcy equations. The two boundaries are considered as isothermal–isothermal, isoflux–isothermal and isothermal–isoflux for the left and right walls of the channel and kept either at equal or at different temperatures. The governing equations are solved numerically by finite difference method with Southwell–Over–Relaxation technique for extended Darcy model and analytically using perturbation series method for Darcian model. The velocity and temperature fields are obtained for various porous parameter, inertia effect, product of Brinkman number and Grashof number and the ratio of Grashof number and Reynolds number for equal and different wall temperatures. Nusselt number at the walls is also determined for three types of thermal boundary conditions. The viscous dissipation enhances the flow reversal in the case of downward flow while it counters the flow in the case of upward flow. The Darcy and inertial drag terms suppress the flow. It is found that analytical and numerical solutions agree very well for the Darcian model. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Influence of temperature dependent conductivity of a nanofluid in a vertical rectangular duct

Natural convective heat transfer and fluid flow in a vertical rectangular duct filled with a nanofluid is studied numerically assuming the thermal conductivity to be dependent on the fluid temperature. The transport equations for mass, momentum and energy formulated in dimensionless form are solved numerically using finite difference method. Particular efforts have been focused on the effects of the thermal conductivity variation parameter, Grashof number, Brinkman number, nanoparticles volume fraction, aspect ratio and type of nanoparticles on the fluid flow and heat transfer inside the cavity. It is found that the flow was enhanced for the increase in Grashof number, Brinkman number and aspect ratio for any values of conductivity variation parameter and for regular fluid and nanofluid. The heat transfer rate for regular fluid is less than that for the nanofluid for all governing parameters.     

Fully Developed Mixed Convection Flow in a Vertical Channel Containing Porous and Fluid Layer with Isothermal or Isoflux Boundaries

An analysis of fully developed combined free and forced convective flow in a fluid saturated porous medium channel bounded by two vertical parallel plates is presented. The flow is modeled using Brinkman equation model. The viscous and Darcy dissipation terms are also included in the energy equation. Three types of thermal boundary conditions such as isothermal–isothermal, isoflux–isothermal, and isothermal–isoflux for the left–right walls of the channel are considered. Analytical solutions for the governing ordinary differential equations are obtained by perturbation series method. In addition, closed form expressions for the Nusselt number at both the left and right channel walls are derived. Results have been presented for a wide range of governing parameters such as porous parameter, ratio of Grashof number and Reynolds number, viscosity ratio, width ratio, and conductivity ratio on velocity, and temperature fields. It is found that the presence of porous matrix in one of the region reduces the velocity and temperature.     

Non-Darcy effects on convective boundary layer flow past a semi-infinite vertical plate in saturated porous media

The composite effects of viscosity, porosity, buoyancy parameter, thermal conductivity ratio and non-Darcy effects of Brinkman friction and Forscheimmer quadratic drag on the mixed convection boundary layer flow past a semi-infinite plate in a fully-saturated porous regime are theoretically and numerically investigated using Keller’s implicit finite-difference technique and a double-shooting Runge-Kutta method. The Brinkman Forcheimer-extended Darcy model is implemented in the hydrodynamic boundary layer equation. The effects of the various non-dimensional thermofluid parameters, viz Grashof number, Darcy number, and Forchheimer number, and also porosity, thermal conductivity and viscosity parameters on the velocity and temperature fields are discussed. Computations for both numerical schemes are made where possible and found to be in excellent agreement.     

Generalized Plain Couette Flow and Heat Transfer in a Composite Channel

An analytical study of fluid flow and heat transfer in a composite channel is presented. The channel walls are maintained at different constant temperatures in such a way that the temperatures do not allow for free convection. The upper plate is considered to be moving and the lower plate is fixed. The flow is modeled using Darcy–Lapwood–Brinkman equation. The viscous and Darcy dissipation terms are included in the energy equation. By applying suitable matching and boundary conditions, an exact solution has been obtained for the velocity and temperature distributions in the two regions of the composite channel. The effects of various parameters such as the porous medium parameter, viscosity ratio, height ratio, conductivity ratio, Eckert number, and Prandtl number on the velocity and temperature fields are presented graphically and discussed.     

Mixed Convection in a Darcy–Brinkman Porous Medium with a Constant Convective Thermal Boundary Condition

The characteristics of the boundary layer flow past a plane surface adjacent to a saturated Darcy–Brinkman porous medium are investigated in this paper. The flow is driven by an external free stream moving with constant velocity. The surface is heated with a convective boundary condition with constant heat transfer coefficient. The problem is non-similar and is investigated numerically by a finite difference method. The problem is governed by four non-dimensional parameters, that is, the convective Darcy number, the convective Grashof number, the Prandtl number, and the axial distance along the plate. The influence of these parameters on the results is investigated, and the results are presented in tables and figures. The Darcy term and the Grashof term in the momentum equation contradict each other and this contradiction makes the problem complicated. However, the wall shear stress and the wall temperature increase continuously along the plate and the wall temperature always tends to 1.     

Effects of temperature-dependent viscosity variation on entropy generation,heat and fluid flow through a porous-saturated duct of rectangular cross-section

Effect of temperature-dependent viscosity on fully developed forced convection in a duct of rectangular cross-section occupied by a fluid-saturated porous medium is investigated analytically. The Darcy flow model is applied and the viscosity-temperature relation is assumed to be an inverse-linear one. The case of uniform heat flux on the walls, i.e. the H boundary condition in the terminology of Kays and Crawford [12], is treated. For the case of a fluid whose viscosity decreases with temperature, it is found that the effect of the variation is to increase the Nusselt number for heated walls. Having found the velocity and the temperature distribution, the second law of thermodynamics is invoked to find the local and average entropy generation rate. Expressions for the entropy generation rate, the Bejan number, the heat transfer irreversibility, and the fluid flow irreversibility are presented in terms of the Brinkman number, the Peclet number, the viscosity variation number, the dimensionless wall heat flux, and the aspect ratio (width to height ratio). These expressions let a parametric study of the problem based on which it is observed that the entropy generated due to flow in a duct of square cross-section is more than those of rectangular counterparts while increasing the aspect ratio decreases the entropy generation rate similar to what previously reported for the clear flow case by Ratts and Raut [14].     

Thermo-diffusion impact on immiscible flow characteristics of convectively heated vertical two-layered Baffle saturated porous channels in a suspension of nanoparticles: an analytical study

The heat and mass transfer of two immiscible fluids in an inclined channel with thermal diffusion, vicious, and Darcy dissipation is studied. The first region consists of a clear fluid, and the second one is filled with a nanofluid saturated with a porous medium. The behaviors of Cu-H₂O, In-H₂O, and Au-H₂O nanofluids are analyzed. The transport properties are assumed to be constant. The coupled non-linear equations of the flow model are transformed into the dimensionless form, and the solutions for the velocity, temperature, and concentration are obtained by the regular perturbation technique. Investigations are carried out on the flow characteristics for various values of the material parameters. The results show that the velocity and temperature of the fluids enhance with the thermal Grashof number, solutal Grashof number, and Brinkman number while decrease with the porosity parameter and solid volume fraction.     

Inertial and Darcy’s Terms Ratio in Boundary Layer at Fluid–Porous Medium Interface

The study considers the forced boundary-layer flow overlying the Darcy–Brinkman porous medium and gives a quantitative analysis of the nonlinear inertial terms in the Brinkman filtration equation. The inertial terms are shown to be larger than the Darcy’s drag near the porous medium interface. The applicability range of boundary-layer approach is determined. It is suitable in high-permeable media with moderate velocities of an external flow. If it is slow enough, the inertial terms can be omitted in spite of interface effect. On the other hand, fast external flow produces the filtration with large pore-scale Reynolds number; therefore, the Forchheimer’s drag should be taken into account. It is shown the Brinkman term as well as inertial terms have a significant role in boundary-layer formation within the porous medium.     

On the flow of fluids through inhomogeneous porous media due to high pressure gradients

Most porous solids are inhomogeneous and anisotropic, and the flows of fluids taking place through such porous solids may show features very different from that of flow through a porous medium with constant porosity and permeability. In this short paper we allow for the possibility that the medium is inhomogeneous and that the viscosity and drag are dependent on the pressure (there is considerable experimental evidence to support the fact that the viscosity of a fluid depends on the pressure). We then investigate the flow through a rectangular slab for two different permeability distributions, considering both the generalized Darcy and Brinkman models. We observe that the solutions using the Darcy and Brinkman models could be drastically different or practically identical, depending on the inhomogeneity, that is, the permeability and hence the Darcy number.     

Thermally Developing Forced Convection in a Porous Medium: Circular Duct with Walls at Constant Temperature,with Longitudinal Conduction and Viscous Dissipation Effects

A modified Graetz methodology is applied to investigate the thermal development of forced convection in a circular duct filled by a saturated porous medium, with walls held at constant temperature, and with the effects of longitudinal conduction and viscous dissipation included. The Brinkman model is employed. The analysis leads to expressions for the local Nusselt number, as a function of the dimensionless longitudinal coordinate and other parameters (Darcy number, Péclet number, Brinkman number).     

Effects of Brownian Motion and Thermophoresis on the Mixed Convection of Nanofluid in a Porous Channel Including Flow Reversal

This article is devoted to combined convection heat transfer of nanofluids through a vertical channel filled with a homogeneous and isotropic porous medium. The flow is assumed to be fully developed and the “Brinkman extended Darcy” model is used for the flow in the porous media and “clear compatible” viscous dissipation model is considered. Also the model utilized for the nanofluid incorporates the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. The governing momentum, energy, and nanopartices volume fraction equations are solved both analytically and numerically. The effects of the influential dimensionless parameters such as Brownian and thermophoresis parameters, mixed convection parameter (Gr/Re), Brinkman, Darcy and Lewis numbers on dimensionless velocity and temperature distributions and pressure drop are studied. Also, the results of the Nusselt number for the both left and right walls are presented and discussed.     

Natural convection flow of a viscous incompressible fluid in a rectangular porous cavity heated from below with cold sidewalls

We consider the flow, which is induced by differential heating on the boundaries of a porous cavity heated from below. In particular we allow the sidewalls to have the same cold temperature as the upper surface, and thus the problem is a variant of the Darcy-Bénard convection problem, but one where there is flow at all non-zero Grashof numbers. Attention is focused on how the flow and heat transfer is affected by variations in the cavity aspect ratio, the Grashof number and the Darcy number. The flow becomes weaker as the Darcy number decreases from the pure fluid limit towards the Darcy-flow limit. In addition the number of cells which form in the cavity varies primarily with the aspect ratio and is always even due to the symmetry imposed by the cold sidewalls.     

Rigorous derivation of the effective model describing a non-isothermal fluid flow in a vertical pipe filled with porous medium

This paper reports an analytical investigation of non-isothermal fluid flow in a thin (or long) vertical pipe filled with porous medium via asymptotic analysis. We assume that the fluid inside the pipe is cooled (or heated) by the surrounding medium and that the flow is governed by the prescribed pressure drop between pipe’s ends. Starting from the dimensionless Darcy–Brinkman–Boussinesq system, we formally derive a macroscopic model describing the effective flow at small Brinkman–Darcy number. The asymptotic approximation is given by the explicit formulae for the velocity, pressure and temperature clearly acknowledging the effects of the cooling (heating) and porous structure. The theoretical error analysis is carried out to indicate the order of accuracy and to provide a rigorous justification of the effective model.     

Non-Darcy Mixed Convection in a Vertical Porous Channel with Boundary Conditions of Third Kind

Combined free and forced convection flow in a parallel plate vertical channel filled with porous matrix is analyzed in the fully developed region with boundary conditions of third kind. The flow is modeled using the Brinkman?CForchheimer-extended Darcy equations. The plates exchange heat with an external fluid. Both conditions of equal and different reference temperatures of the external fluid are considered. Governing equations are solved numerically by shooting technique that uses classical explicit Runge?CKutta scheme and Newton?CRaphson method as a correction scheme and analytically using perturbation series method for Darcy model. The velocity field, the temperature field and Nusselt numbers are obtained for governing parameters such as porous parameter, inertia term and perturbation parameter for equal and unequal Biot numbers and are displayed graphically. The dimensionless mean velocity and bulk temperature are also determined. It is found that the numerical solutions agree for small values of the perturbation parameter in the absence of the inertial forces.     

Numerical simulation of non-Darcian flow through a porous medium

This work reports on fluid flow in a fluid-saturated porous medium, accounting for the boundary and inertial effects in the momentum equation. The flow is simulated by Brinkman-Forchheimer-extended Darcy formulation (DFB), using MAC (Marker And Cell) and Chorin pressure iteration method. The method is validated by comparison with analytic results. The effect of Reynolds number, Darcy number, porosity and viscosity ratio on velocity is investigated. As a result, it is found that Darcy number has a decisive influence on pressure as well as velocity, and the effect of viscosity ratio on velocity is very strong given the Darcy number. Additional key findings include unreasonable choice of effective viscosity can involve loss of important physical information.     

Non-Darcy double-diffusive natural convection in axisymmetric fluid saturated porous cavities

Double-diffusive natural convection in a fluid saturated porous medium has been investigated using the finite element method. A generalised porous medium model is used to study both Darcy and non-Darcy flow regimes in an axisymmetric cavity. Results indicate that the Darcy number should be a separate parameter to understand flow characteristics in non-Darcy regime. The influence of porosity on heat and mass transfer is significant and the transport rates may differ by 25% or more, at higher Darcy and Rayleigh numbers. When compared with the Darcy and other specialised models of Brinkman and Forchheimer, the present generalised model predicts the least heat and mass transfer rates. It is also observed that an increase in radius ratio leads to higher Nusselt and Sherwood numbers along the inner wall.     

Three dimensional unsteady convection and mass transfer flow through porous medium

The problem of three dimensional unsteady convection flow through a porous medium, with effect of mass transfer bounded by an infinite vertical porous plate is discussed, when the suction at the plate is transverse sinusoidal and the plate temperature oscillates in time about a constant mean. Assuming the free stream velocity to be uniform, approximate solutions are obtained for the flow field, the temperature field, the skin-friction and the rate of heat transfer. The dependence of solution on Pr (Prandtl number), Gr (Grashof number based on temperature), Gc (modified Grashof number based on concentration difference), Sc (Schimdt number), the frequency and the permeability parameter is also investigated.     

Non-Darcian Effects on the Onset of Convection in a Porous Layer with Throughflow

The Brinkman extended Darcy model including Lapwood and Forchheimer inertia terms with fluid viscosity being different from effective viscosity is employed to investigate the effect of vertical throughflow on thermal convective instabilities in a porous layer. Three different types of boundary conditions (free–free, rigid–rigid and rigid–free) are considered which are either conducting or insulating to temperature perturbations. The Galerkin method is used to calculate the critical Rayleigh numbers for conducting boundaries, while closed form solutions are achieved for insulating boundaries. The relative importance of inertial resistance on convective instabilities is investigated in detail. In the case of rigid–free boundaries, it is found that throughflow is destabilizing depending on the choice of physical parameters and the model used. Further, it is noted that an increase in viscosity ratio delays the onset of convection. Standard results are also obtained as particular cases from the general model presented here.