Unsteady Natural Convection in a Square Cavity Partially Filled with Porous Media Using a Thermal Non-Equilibrium Model

Unsteady natural convection and heat transfer in a square cavity partially filled with porous media using a thermal non-equilibrium model is studied in this paper. The left vertical wall is maintained at a constant hot temperature Th and the right vertical wall is maintained at a constant cold temperature Tc, while the horizontal walls are adiabatic. The governing equations are obtained by applying the Darcy model and Boussinesq approximation. COMSOL’s finite element method is used to solve the non-dimensional governing equations together with specified boundary conditions. The governing parameters of this study are the Rayleigh number (Ra = 10, and Ra = 10), Darcy namber (Da = 10−2, and Da = 10−3), the modified thermal conductivity ratio (10−1 ≤ γ ≤ 10), the inter-phase heat transfer coefficien (10−1 ≤ H ≤ 10) and the time dependent (0.001 ≤ τ ≤ 0.2). The results presented for values of the governing parameters in terms of streamlines in both fluid/porous-layer, isotherms of fluid in fluid/porous-layer, isotherms of solid in porous layer, and average Nusselt number. Keywords—Unsteady natural convection, Thermal non-equilibrium