Numerical study on free convection of cold water in a square porous cavity heated with sinusoidal wall temperature

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of the present study is to analyze the natural convection flow and heat transfer of cold water around °C in a square porous cavity. The horizontal walls of cavity are adiabatic, and the vertical walls are maintained at different temperatures. The right side wall is maintained at temperature θ_c, and the left side wall is maintained at sinusoidal temperature distribution.

Design/methodology/approach

The Brinkman–Forchheimer-extended Darcy model for porous medium is used to study the effects of density inversion parameter, Rayleigh number and impact of Darcy number and porosity. The finite volume method is used to solve the governing equations.

Findings

The heat transfer rate is increased on increasing the Darcy number and porosity. Also, the convective heat transfer rate is decreased first and then increased on increasing the density inversion parameter.

Research limitations/implications

The numerical computations have been carried out for the Darcy number ranging of 10⁽⁻⁴⁾ ≤ Da ≤ 10⁽⁻¹⁾, the porosity ranging of 0.4 ≤ ε ≤ 0.8 and the density inversion parameter ranging of 0 ≤ T_m ≤ 1 and keeping Ra = 10⁶.

Practical implications

The results can be used in the cooling of electronic components, thermal storage system and in heat exchangers.

Originality/value

The choice of consideration of sinusoidal heating and density maximum effect produces good result in flow field and temperature distribution. The obtained results can be used in various fields.

Citation

Janagi, K., Sivasankaran, S., Bhuvaneswari, M. and Eswaramurthi, M. (2017), "Numerical study on free convection of cold water in a square porous cavity heated with sinusoidal wall temperature", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 27 No. 4, pp. 1000-1014. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-10-2015-0453