Natural convection in a shallow porous cavity - The Brinkman model (Q581153)

The author has studied the natural convection problem in a shallow porous rectangular cavity with differentially heated sidewalls. The governing equations for the porous medium are those given by Brinkman which helps us to study the flow in a porous medium, consisting of a sparce distribution of particles. Such a phenomenon occures in a petroleum reservoir. The governing equations are solved for two types of boundary conditions, i) no-slip boundary condition, ii) cavity with free upper surface. The inner and outer expansion method is employed. It is observed that the rate of heat transfer at large values of the Darcy number for both of the above cases behaves in the same manner, with very little difference between them. Engineers in the petroleum industry will find this paper more useful and interesting.