Thermal Convection in a

Rectangular Cavity Filled With a

Heat-Generating, Darcy Porous
Medium
V. Prasad Two-dimensional, steady natural convection in a rectangular cavity filled with a
heat-generating, saturated porous medium has been studied numerically for the case
Mechanical Engineering Department,
when the vertical walls of the cavity are isothermal and the horizontal walls are
Columbia University,
New York, NY 10027
either adiabatic or cold. Results are presented in terms of the streamlines and
Mem. ASME isotherms, the maximum temperature in the cavity, and the local and overall Nusselt
numbers. The buoyant flow together with the uniform heat generation produces a
highly stratified medium at high Rayleigh numbers. Although the maximum
temperature in the cavity 8„wx invariably increases with the Rayleigh number Ra and
aspect ratio A, the rate of increase diminishes with this enhancement in Ra and A.
However, the change in the horizontal wall boundary condition from adiabatic to
cold reduces 6max. The local heat flux on the bounding walls is a strong function of
the Rayleigh number, the aspect ratio, and the wall boundary conditions. The varia-
tion in overall Nusselt number is qualitatively similar to that observed in the case of
a differentially heated cavity, and the present heat transfer rates are close to that for
the cavity heated by applying a uniform heat flux. Several correlations are presented
for maximum temperature and overall Nusselt number.

Introduction
Thermal convection in fluid-saturated, heat-generating
porous media has several geophysical and engineering applica-
tions, such as postaccident heat removal from particulate
nuclear fuel debris that may result from an accident in a
nuclear reactor, heat transfer associated with the deep storage
of nuclear waste, exothermic reactions in packed-bed reactors,
and heat recovery or loss in geothermal systems. Another im-
portant area of its application is the heat transfer from stored
agricultural products that release energy as a result of
metabolism of the products.
Although several studies on free convection heat transfer in
heat-generating porous media have been reported [1-9], most
of these works are related to the porous layers bounded by
cold horizontal walls. Recently, Beukema et al. [10] have
studied three-dimensional natural convection in a heat-
generating porous medium confined in an isothermally cooled
parallelepiped for a range of parameters suitable for the
storage of agricultural products. However, there is very little
reported on natural convection in rectangular cavities filled
with heat-generating porous media and cooled at the side
Rayleigh number and aspect ratio are qualitatively similar, the
correlations for average Nusselt number are quite different.
Furthermore, the present heat transfer rates for A > 1 are
very close to that for a cavity heated by applying a uniform
heat flux.
Formulation and Solution
A schematic diagram of a two-dimensional rectangular cavi-
ty with isothermally cooled vertical walls is shown in Fig. 1.
The cavity is filled with a fluid-saturated porous medium
which generates heat at a uniform rate. All walls of the cavity
are further assumed to be impermeable. In the porous
medium, Darcy's law is assumed to hold, and the fluid is
assumed to be a normal Boussinesq fluid. The viscous drag
(Brinkman model) and inertia terms in the equations of mo-
tion are neglected, which are valid assumptions for low Darcy
and particle Reynolds numbers, and for high Prandtl and
5T.

+
walls. The only study reported thus far for this case is by =0
dy
Haajizadeh et al. [11]. For low Rayleigh numbers, they ob-
tained approximate solutions to the problem using a regular
perturbation analysis whereas for high Rayleigh numbers they
developed a boundary layer analysis. They also obtained
numerical results for A = 4 and Ra < 6250 to verify their
boundary layer solutions.
The purpose of the present work is to study natural convec-
tion in a rectangular cavity filled with a heat-generating,
saturated porous medium when its vertical walls are isother-
mally cooled and horizontal walls are either insulated or cold.
The problem has been analyzed numerically for two-
dimensional, steady-state flow for wide ranges of Rayleigh
number and aspect ratio. The present flow patterns and
isotherms exhibit distinctly different behavior from that of a - y y y y /LS
•'Y yy yy
differentially heated vertical cavity. Although the effects of
L 3T
9y
Contributed by the Heat Transfer Division and presented at the National
Heat Transfer Conference, Denver, Colorado, August 1985. Manuscript re- Fig. 1 Vertical cavity filled with a heat-generating porous medium,
ceived by the Heat Transfer Division April 9, 1985. coordinate system, and thermal boundary conditions

Journal of Heat Transfer AUGUST 1987, Vol. 109 / 697

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 K o z e n y - C a r m a n n u m b e r s , respectively. Owing to the last <H0, )=0 (11)
assumption, velocity slip at the b o u n d i n g surface is necessary.
de
With these assumptions, the conservation equations for 7 = 0 and 1, ^ = 0, -— = 0ord =D (12)
mass, m o m e n t u m , and energy for steady, two-dimensional JY
flow in an isotropic, h o m o g e n e o u s , p o r o u s m e d i u m are The zero temperature gradient boundary condition at X=0 is
based on the symmetry of the problem and it is only necessary
du dv
=0 (1) to solve the problem for the right half of the cavity. The
dx dy present results are also applicable to a cavity of width D with
one side wall adiabatic and the other cold.
(2) Equations (7) and (8) are transformed into finite difference
dx K equations using a scheme developed by Spalding and co-
workers. The method is based on the integration of these
dp equations over finite area elements and ensures that the con-
+ pg + - -v = 0 (3)
dy K servation laws are obeyed over arbitrarily large or small por-
tions of the physical domain [12]. The solution technique is
dT dT d2T d2T
(4) well described in the literature [12, 13] and has been widely
-+u- dy 2 + • dy2 ± +' - C
dx " L dx P used for the natural convection problems. The applicability of
where S is the rate of volumetric heat generation. the method and its accuracy for convective heat transfer in a
Defining a dimensionless temperature porous cavity have already been discussed elsewhere [14].
Integration of these equations following Gosman et al. [12]
„ (T-Tc)
(5) introduces upwind differences for the transport terms in the
SD2/2k energy equation and is equivalent to second upwind differenc-
and a stream function ing. All other terms in the energy and momentum equations
are discretized by central differencing. The successive substitu-
di, a.L dip
u= — v=- 2 (6) tion formulas derived in this way satisfy the convergence
D dY ' ' D dX criterion and are quite stable for many circumstances [12]. For
the governing equations (l)-(4) together with the Boussinesq solving the simultaneous algebraic equations thus obtained,
approximation for density variation reduce to the Gauss-Seidel point iterative method is used, which makes
use of new values as soon as they are available. For low
d2xP d2i> dd
A2 R A (7) Rayleigh numbers, overrelaxation of temperature helps in ob-
dX 2
' dY 2
- * Hx taining faster convergence whereas for high Rayleigh
numbers, underrelaxation of stream function is more helpful.
di dd d\P dd d2e I d2e The value of the overrelaxation parameter used is as high as
2 2
-+2 (8)
dX dY dY dX dX A dY2 1.9, and a suitable value of the underrelaxation parameter is
where the Rayleigh n u m b e r based o n volumetric heat genera between 0.5 and 1. A convergence criterion
tion is | ^ « _ ^ i - i ) / 0 « | < io- (13)
gPKSD1
Ra = - (9) is used for both \j/ and 8 at all grid points in the domain to
2vak check the iterative convergence.
The relevant h y d r o d y n a m i c and thermal b o u n d a r y conditions For low Rayleigh numbers (Ra < 500), a uniform mesh size
are is used for the numerical calculations whereas a nonuniform
mesh is employed at high Rayleigh numbers. In the case of
tf=o,
ae
-=o varying mesh size, the finer grid (of the order of 10~ 2 ~ 10~3)
x=o, dX (10) is used near the walls. The number and size of the grids in the x

Nomenclature

A = aspect ratio = L/D

C = specific heat of fluid at con- local heat flux on the cold i8 = isobaric coefficient of ther-
QL =
stant pressure, J/kg-K wall mal expansion of fluid, K~'
D = width of half cavity, m Rayleigh number based on 8 = dimensionless temperature
Ra
g = acceleration due to gravity, cavity width = g/3 = (T-Tc)/(SD2/2k)
m/s 2 v — kinematic viscosity, m 2 / s
•KSD3/2kva
p = density of fluid, k g / m 3
h = average heat transfer coeffi- Ra, = Rayleigh number based on
4> = 41 or 6 in equation (13)
cient on the cold wall, height = g/3 KSD2L/2kva
4> = stream function (equation
W/m 2 -K volumetric heat generation,
(6))
K = permeability of saturated W/m 3
porous medium, m 2 T temperature, K
k = effective thermal conductivi- u fluid velocity in x direction, Subscripts
ty of porous medium, m/s ad =
adiabatic horizontal walls
W/m-K fluid velocity in y direction, c =
cooled wall
L = height of rectangular cavity, m/s cold =
cold horizontal walls
m x, y = Cartesian coordinates, m/s cond =
conduction
Nu = Nusselt number based on X = dimensionless distance o n i h =
heated wall
cavity width = hD/k axis = x/D m =
based on mean temperature
p = pressure, Pa Y = dimensionless distance on y on the line of symmetry
q = dimensionless local heat flux axis = y/L max = maximum
on vertical wall = thermal diffusivity of porous 0 = line of symmetry (x=0)
2qL/SD=~dB/dX (JT=1) medium = k/pC, m 2 /s L = based on the cavity height L

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 Fig. 2 Isotherms and streamlines for A = 1 when horizontal walls are
adiabatic: (a) Ra = 10 (A0 = 0.1, A^ = 0.05); (b) Ra = 10 2 (AS = 0.05, A^ Fig. 3 Temperature distribution on the line of symmetry
= 0.3); (c) Ra = 10 4 (AS = 0.01, A^ = 2)

and y direction are based on the values of Ra and A. The metry. As Ra is increased further, the streamlines move closer
following are the grid fields used for the present calculations: to the cold wall, producing strong boundary layer effects on
Grid Field the side wall. Although the flow remains unicellular at all
A<\ 41x31 Rayleigh numbers, the velocity in the upper left' corner
A=l 31x31 decreases substantially. A similar flow behavior has also been
2<A<5 31x41 reported by Haajizadeh et al. [11].
A>5 27X41
At Ra = 10, the isotherms (Fig. 2a) exhibit minimal distor-
These mesh sizes provide Nusselt numbers within 3 percent of tion from a pure conduction solution indicating that the con-
their asymptotic values. Indeed, the grid refinement is based duction is still the dominant mechanism of energy transport.
on several trial cases for high and low values of Ra and A. The However, as the Rayleigh number increases, the temperature
accuracy of the present results has been further checked by field is significantly modified in the region where the convec-
employing an energy balance between the heat generated by tive transport is larger. This distortion of conduction
the porous medium and that removed at the cold wall(s). isotherms can be explained by examining the energy equation
Generally, energetic closure has been achieved to within 1 per- (8) which can be rewritten as
cent except for the high Rayleigh numbers and/or the low
aspect ratios where it is satisfied within 2 percent. For several d2e 1 d2<? /„ de de
\ „ „*,
+ + 2 u v (14)
trial runs, an energy balance at various x locations of the cavi- ^x^ ^^Y^ \ - ^r~ ^Y-)=°
ty has indicated that the variation never exceeds the value ob- Here, the expression in parentheses can be interpreted as a
tained at the cold wall(s). Moreover, the present results are source term which depends on the location. Since d6/dX<0
within 4 percent of the numerical values obtained by and 88/d Y— 0 over the flow field (Fig. 2a), the convective flow
Haajizadeh et al. [11]. A detailed discussion of the effect of decreases the strength of the source term in the upper half of
relaxation parameters, convergence criterion, upwind dif- the cavity where u > 0 and increases it in the lower half where
ferencing, and mesh size is presented in [14, 15]. u < 0. The modifications in the isotherm shapes are consistent
with this interpretation. It may be noted that the maximum
Results and Discussion cavity temperature 0max always occurs at the top edge of the
line of symmetry, i.e., at X = 0, Y = 1.
Numerical results for a rectangular cavity filled with a heat- Any further increase in Ra results in a stably stratified
generating saturated porous medium have been obtained for temperature field in the left top corner (Fig. 2b). In this
cooled, constant-temperature vertical walls and adiabatic or region, horizontal conduction is almost negligible. The extent
isothermally cooled horizontal walls. The range of parameters of this stratified region continually increases with Ra and pro-
considered for the first case is 0.5 < A < 20 and Ra < 104, duces a thermal boundary layer on the vertical wall (Fig. 2c).
whereas for the second case, results are obtained for A = 1 As a result, the convective velocities are smaller in the
and 10, and Ra < 2000. Because of the symmetry, computa- stratified region and are very high in the boundary layer. The
tions have been carried out for only the right half of the cavity higher the aspect ratio, the weaker is the thermal stratification
(Fig. 1). This region will be referred to as the "half-cavity." for a given Rayleigh number (also see [11]).
The temperature distributions on the line of symmetry are
1 Adiabatic Horizontal Walls presented in Fig. 3. As the Rayleigh number increases, the
Temperature and Flow Fields. Flow patterns and isotherms dimensionless temperature 80 is observed to decrease from its
for A = 1 and Ra = 10, 102, and 104 are presented in Fig. 2 for conduction value of unity except in a small distance near the
the adiabatic top and bottom surfaces. For pure conduction top edge. This decrease in 0Q is larger in the lower region owing
(Ra = 0), the isotherms are vertical and the temperature is to higher velocities of the returning cold fluid. However, a
given by 0cond = 1 -X2. As the Rayleigh number increases, a decrease in 6Q does not mean that the actual temperature has
circulatory motion is established because of the buoyancy ef- dropped. For a given system, Ra can be considered as directly
fects. The flow consists of a single cell filling the entire half- proportional to the volumetric heat generation S, whereas 6Q is
cavity and rotating slowly in the clockwise direction indirectly 2 3
proportional to S. A tenfold increase in Ra, from
(counterclockwise in the other half). Initially, the convection 10 to 10 , produces only one-third to one-half reduction in
cell is symmetric about the center of the half-cavity. However, 0O, for A = 1. This clearly implies that for a fixed A, the
an increase in Ra results in an asymmetric flow pattern pro- temperature (T0 - Tc) increases with Ra (or S). Nevertheless,
ducing closer streamlines near the walls (Fig. 2). The velocities the rate of enhancement in (T0 - Tc) diminishes when Ra (or
are thus higher near the walls and lower near the line of sym- S) is increased.

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 Table 1 The constant C and exponent m for the correlation
of 0max (equation (16)) for various aspect ratios
Rayleigh Percent
number standard
A c, m range deviation
0.5 4.137 0.408 Ra > 100 1.33
0.7 2.883 0.359 Ra > 100 1.34
I 2.743 0.343 Ra > 50 0.70
2 3.198 0.335 Ra > 100 0.35
5 3.867 0.323 Ra > 100 1.17
10 4.469 0.314 Ra > 200 1.41
20 5.101 0.306 Ra > 500 2.74
Fig. 4 Variation in maximum cavity temperature for the adiabatic
horizontal walls; present values of 0 max for A = 4 are compared with
those reported by Haajizadeh et al. [11]
Table 2 The constant C t and exponent r for the correlation
of average Nusselt number (equation (20)) for various aspect
ratios
Furthermore, an increase in aspect ratio beyond two results
in a higher temperature at any location Y on the line of sym- Rayleigh Percent
metry (Fig. 3). The taller the cavity, the larger is the number standard
temperature gradient, dd0/d Y. This does not imply that the ac- A c, r range deviation
tual temperature gradient increases with an increase in the 0.5 0.395 0.461 Ra > 100 1.09
aspect ratio. Indeed, for a cavity of given width D, dT/dy 0.7 0.584 0.421 Ra > 100 1.28
decreases when the cavity is increased for a fixed S. This is evi- 1 0.702 0.399 Ra > 50 0.46
dent from the expression 2 0.768 0.377 Ra > 100 0.66
5 0.667 0.365 Ra > 100 0.73
10 0.553 0.361 Ra > 200 0.78
dT SD 1 dd0 20 0.455 0.306 Ra > 500 0.59
(15)
IT 2k A dY
and Fig. 3.
However, for A < 2, the effect of aspect ratio on 0O is not A comparison between the present values of 0max for A = 4
straightforward. Generally, 0O on the line of symmetry starts and that reported by Haajizadeh et al. [11] (Fig. 4) indicates
increasing when A is reduced below a certain value between that the two numerical results agree within 4 percent.
0.7 and 2, as for example, 0O for A = 0.5 is higher than that for However, the boundary layer analysis of Haajizadeh et al.
A = 1, at least when Y < 0.85 (Fig. 3). predicts lower values of 0max for Ra > 50. Although the devia-
The maximum temperature always occurs at the center of tion is as large as up to 12 percent, the slope of the 0max versus
the top wall, and is a function of Ra and A (Fig. 4). At Ra = Ra curve is well-predicted. It may be noted that the boundary
0, 0max is unity, but an increase in Rayleigh number results in a layer analysis of Haajizadeh et al. [11] is based on the Oseen
higher 0 max . This is primarily because the hot fluid reaching linearization of boundary layer equations and employs an in-
the left top corner is unable to reject energy effectively since tegral technique which has been widely used in the literature.
the velocities are small in that region [11]. However, this in-
crease in 0max with Ra does not continue for long. Indeed, 0max Heat Transfer Results. The overall heat transfer may be ex-
starts decreasing as soon as Ra is high enough to produce suf- pressed in two ways, based on either the maximum
ficiently high convective velocities in the top left corner and temperature in the cavity or the mean temperature on the line
enhance the heat rejection. of symmetry. When the heat transfer coefficient on the cold
wall is defined in terms of the maximum cavity temperature,
Although 0max decreases with an increase in Ra, it simply i.e.,
implies that the rate of enhancement in the actual
temperature, T(0, 1), diminishes with the convective velocities. k r L dT
For a given A, the reduction in 0max is minimal at low Rayleigh h(Tm •Te) = - dy (17)
T ~ Jo
numbers. However, it decreases at a faster rate when the
Rayleigh number is large. The curve for In (0max) versus In (Ra) the Nusselt number is obtained as
is observed to be a straight line beyond a critical value of Numax =
2 / 0max (18)
Rayleigh number which is a function of aspect ratio. This
situation characterizes a strong stratification in the core and One can easily obtain this Nusselt number from Fig. 4. The
the boundary layer flow on the vertical wall. correlations for Nu max in the boundary layer regime are, then,
Moreover, an increase in aspect ratio beyond unity is always given by equations (16) and (18), and Table 1. Similarly the
associated with an enhancement in 0max (Fig. 4). Whenyl < 1, Nusselt number based on the mean temperature Tm is
the increase or decrease in 0max depends on the Rayleigh
number. If the Rayleigh number is high enough to maintain a Nu m = 2/0„ (19)
strong boundary layer on the cold wall, 0max will decrease with and is presented in Fig. 5.
A; otherwise, it will increase. In the conduction regime, Nu m -* 2 for all values of A. An
The maximum cavity temperature can be correlated as increase in Ra is always associated with an enhancement in the
average heat transfer coefficient (Fig. 5). Moreover, the heat
= CRa" for a fixed A (16)
transfer behavior in the present case is very similar to what has
where C and m are given in Table 1 for various values of A. As been reported for a differentially heated vertical cavity [14,
can be seen, the exponent m increases as the aspect ratio is 15]. Although the Nusselt number always increases with Ra,
decreased. However, there exists a critical aspect ratio as a the effect of aspect ratio is not straightforward. For a given
function of Ra beyond which C always increases whether the Ra, there exists an aspect ratio for which the Nusselt number is
aspect ratio is increased or decreased. For the present range of a maximum. For the present range of Rayleigh number,
Rayleigh number, ^4critical lies between 0.7 and 1. ^critical u e s between 0.7 and 2.

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 ll I L__l_lJ I 1 I I I I I I I
0.5 1 5 10 20

A
Fig. 5 Variation in average Nusselt number for a cavity with adiabatic (a) m 1(c)
horizontal walls Fig. 7 Isotherms and streamlines when the top and bottom walls are
cooled: (a) Ra = 10 2 , A = 1 (A0 = 0.02, A^ = 0.1); (b) Ra = 10 3 , A = 1
(Afl = 0.015, A>£ = 0.6); (c) Ra = 10 3 , A = 10 (A0 = 0.05, A^ = 0.4)

0O(Y) are also close. Indeed, the temperatures reported in Fig.

3 are within 20 percent of those obtained for the constant flux
heating.
The mean Nusselt numbers for the two cases are compared
in Fig. 6 for A = 1 and 10. Owing to the present definition of
q ( = SD/2), Nu,„ for the constant heat flux case is twice that
reported in [14]. In Fig. 6, the two Nusselt numbers are very
i< . . i , , , . i i__j i i close to each other. The present agreement is primarily due to
20 102 _ 10 3 10 4 the similarity of the boundary layer structure regardless of the
Ro or Ro

Fig. 6 Present heat transfer results compared with that for a cavity
with constant flux heating [14]
In the boundary layer regime, the average Nusselt number
may be correlated as
Nu m = C, Ra r for a fixed A (20)
The values of Cx and r are given in Table 2. These correlations
predict Nusselt numbers within 1.5 percent of the numerically
obtained values.
A generalized correlation for the tall cavity may be obtained
as
Nu m = 1.163 Ra°- 36 M-°- 330 (21)
which is based on the data for A > 4. Equation (21) predicts
Nusselt number within 2 percent of the correlated data for
these aspect ratios. If this correlation is used for A = 2, the
variation is as large as 7.8 and 5.4 percent at Ra = 103 and
104, respectively.
Comparison With Other Results. It is worthwhile to com-
pare the present results with those for the differentially heated
cavity of width D, whose left vertical wall is heated by apply-
ing a constant heat flux and whose right wall is isothermally
cooled. If the applied heat flux q is taken as SD/2, the
Rayleigh number in the present case is identical to that for the
constant flux heating J14].
A comparison between the present isotherm and streamline
patterns and those reported by Prasad and Kulacki [14] for the
constant heat flux case indicates that both are asymmetric.
However, the strong boundary layer effects on the heated wall
as observed in the case of constant heat flux case are not
present here. On the other hand, the boundary layer flow on
the cold wall is much stronger in the present case. Never-
theless, the present temperature distributions on the line of
symmetry (x = 0) are very similar to those obtained for
uniformly heated wall [14]. Not only the effects of Ra and A
on these temperature profiles are identical, but the values of
heating applied to the cavity. This characterization of a ther-
mally stratified core and thin boundary layers on the cold ver-
tical walls has also been noted by Haajizadeh et al. [11].
However, when the aspect ratio is decreased below unity, the
difference between the Nusselt numbers for these two types of
heating is observed to increase.
2 Cold Horizontal Walls
Temperature and Flow Fields. A change in the boundary
condition at the horizontal wall from dO/dY=0 to 0 = 0
modifies the temperature and velocity fields significantly. For
pure conduction, the isotherms are symmetric about the
horizontal line at Y = 0.5, and the temperature 8 is maximum
at (0, 0.5). However, the buoyancy-induced flow at Ra > 0
destroys this symmetric property of the temperature field and
shifts the location for 0max upward (Fig. 7). As a result, when
the Rayleigh number is increased, the temperature in the lower
portion of the cavity decreases while that in the upper region
increases. The stratification in the upper layers is, thus, much
stronger than that observed in the case of insulated top and
bottom (Figs. 2 and 7). It should be noted that the stratifica-
tion in the upper region is now reversed because the top wall is
cooled and the porous medium generates heat everywhere.
However, the inverse stratification in the present case does not
produce any flow instability since a positive buoyant effect
produced by the uniform heat generation always counteracts a
negative buoyancy caused by an unstable stratification. The
nature of the convective cell, thus, remains unaltered. These
characteristics of the temperature field make the present
problem quite different from that of a differentially heated
vertical cavity with cold horizontal walls.
The aforementioned unstable stratification is strengthened
by an increase in Ra. In Fig. 7, the isotherms in the upper
region are almost horizontal for a large portion of the cavity
indicating that a substantial amount of energy is rejected on
the top wall. The flow field is modified accordingly. The
boundary layer effects on the vertical walls are now weaker as

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 i I i i i i i i [
• — — - — - .

""*"--- —~^—^_ ~~—-», _

^~~~""~—- " ——. •"-~^_ -
"" -^^ ~~-~^^J^ -~, -
•
^"^^-C^o^-
" ^ . ^
-
-\ ^^^^~~~~^-II"~"- ^
" • - - - -
"
- ^ ^ ^ . ^ "

^^~^^^5jo "^
Adiabatlc
^ ^ ^ Fig. 9(a)
O.l
10 100 1000 2000
Ra
Fig. 8 Variation in maximum cavity temperature for A = 1 and 10

r^i°i
compared to that for the adiabatic top and bottom walls (Figs.
2b and 7a). Ra
Furthermore, the location of 0max and the inverse stratifica- 20
100
tion in the upper layers are significantly affected by an in- 1000

crease in aspect ratio (Fig. 7). When A = 10, the temperature

is maximum at a location very close to the top edge, e.g., Bottom,
Surface
within 8 percent of the height of the cavity for 100 < Ra <
1000. Also, the temperature gradient dd0/dYin a region very
close to the upper surface increases substantially with A. In- T—°t"
1,0 0,0
deed, when the aspect ratio is high, the large-scale modifica- X,Y

tion in the temperature and flow fields due to the change in Fig. 9(b)
boundary condition from 86/d Y - 0 to 0 = 0 is mostly con- Fig. 9 Local heat flux on the cold walls: (a) A = 1 and (b) A = 10
centrated in the small regions near the top and bottom sur-
faces. The larger the aspect ratio, the smaller is the region of
influence. This is also demonstrated by the temperature
distributions on the inner wall shown in Fig. 3 where the varia- The local heat transfer rate on the vertical wall increases
tion in 0O is observed to be substantial for A = 1. However, from zero at Y = 1 to a maximum and then back to zero at Y
the two temperatures are quite close to each other for A = 10 = 0. In the conduction regime, the peak occurs at Y = 0.5,
except for the small distances from the top and bottom edges. but with an increase in Ra, the location for the peak value of q
The above influence of the boundary condition at the moves upward (Fig. 9a). This is a direct result of the increased
horizontal wall is directly reflected by the variation in 0max. As convective velocities and the enhanced boundary layer effects
expected, 0max decreases with a change in the boundary condi- on the side wall. However, an increase in aspect ratio reduces
tion from adiabatic to cold (Fig. 8), the variation being largest the largest value of the local heat flux on vertical wall. In
in the case of pure conduction. The difference between the two general, the horizontal wall boundary condition has signifi-
values of 0max continually decreases with an increase in the cant influence on the distribution of q on the side wall (Fig. 9).
Rayleigh number and/or the aspect ratio. As an example, for It should be noted that the heat transfer rates near the right
A = 1, (0max)<,rf is 4.4 times (0max)coid when Ra = 10 whereas at top edge have reduced substantially because the top wall is
Ra = 1000, (0max)ad = 1.76 (0max)cold. This difference in 0max now cold.
further reduces to within 22 percent when the cavity aspect A significant amount of energy is also rejected at the bot-
ratio is increased to 10. An interesting aspect of the above tom surface when the Rayleigh number is small. However, the
variation in 0max is that the slope of the In (0max) versus In (Ra) heat transfer on this surface decreases with an increase in Ra
curve at high Rayleigh numbers is almost independent of the which clearly implies that the effect of the bottom wall
horizontal wall boundary condition. However, the smaller the boundary condition diminishes with higher velocities or higher
cavity aspect ratio, the larger is the Rayleigh number required Rayleigh number.
for the two slopes to be close. The overall Nusselt number as defined by equation (19) is
presented in Fig. 6 for both the adiabatic and the isothermal
Heat Transfer Results. Interesting features of the present horizontal walls. As already indicated by the temperature
heat transfer results are demonstrated in Fig. 9 where the out- field, the Nusselt number for the present boundary conditions
ward local heat flux q has been presented for all the im- is much higher than that for the adiabatic case when A = 1.
permeable walls. Owing to the buoyant velocity and the However, the difference decreases substantially with an in-
uniform heat generation, a large fraction of energy is rejected crease in aspect ratio, and atA = 10, the two Nusselt numbers
on the top surface. For a fixed aspect ratio, the amount of are within 12 percent of each other. It is, thus, evident that the
energy (as a ratio to the total heat generated) removed on the effect of the horizontal wall boundary condition is minimal at
upper surface is increased with Ra. Even for a large aspect large aspect ratios, and the results for adiabatic top and bot-
ratio, when the width of the cavity is much smaller than the tom can be conveniently used for other types of thermal
height, the energy rejected on the top surface is quite signifi- boundary condition on these walls when A > 10.
cant (Fig. 9a).
At low Rayleigh numbers, the local heat flux q is largest at
the center of the top wall (X = 0, Y = 1), and decreases with Conclusion
an increase in X. However, at high Ra, the distribution of q Natural convection in a rectangular cavity filled with a heat-
may be different; it first decreases and then increases until it generating saturated porous medium has been numerically in-
reaches a peak a little before the right top edge (Fig. 9). It is vestigated for the case when the vertical walls are cooled at a
possible that this peak value of q is higher than that at the constant temperature and the horizontal walls are either in-
center of the upper surface (0, 1) for certain combinations of sulated or isothermally cooled. The results obtained for a wide
Ra and A. range of Rayleigh number and 0.5 < A < 20 indicate that

702/Vol. 109, AUGUST 1987 Transactions of the ASME

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 unlike the isothermally heated vertical cavity, the temperature
and flow fields are asymmetric in the present case. An increase
in Rayleigh number results in a stably stratified temperature
field for the adiabatic horizontal walls whereas for the cold
top and bottom, the stratification in the upper region is in-
verse. Also, the extent and strength of the stratified region de-
pend strongly on Ra and A. In general, the convective
velocities are smaller in the stratified region and are very high
in the boundary layers.
The temperature at any location in the cavity increases with
Ra, but the rate of increase in temperature invariably
diminishes. When the top and bottom walls are adiabatic, the
maximum cavity temperature occurs at the center of the top
wall. In the boundary layer regime, the maximum temperature
can be expressed by a simple correlation (equation (16)). When
the boundary condition at the horizontal wall is changed to 6
= 0, 0max occurs at a location below Y = 1. The higher the
aspect ratio and the Rayleigh number, the closer is the 0max
location to the top surface.
The local heat flux on the cold wall(s) is a strong function of
the boundary condition at the horizontal walls besides Ra and
A. However, the effect of the bottom wall boundary condition
diminishes with an increase in Ra or A while the influence of
the top wall boundary condition is enhanced. The overall
Nusselt number increases with the Rayleigh number. For a
fixed Ra, the maximum value of Num occurs at 0.7 < A < 2
beyond which any increase or decrease in A results in a reduc-
tion in the heat transfer rate.
Since the boundary layer structure in the present case is very
similar to that observed for the differentially heated vertical
cavity, the present values of Num are very close to that
reported for the constant flux heating. The effect of the
geometric parameter A thus seems to be independent of the
type of heating for large aspect ratios. Several correlations
have also been reported for the maximum cavity temperature
and the average Nusselt number.
Journal of Heat Transfer
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AUGUST 1987, Vol. 109/703