Thermosolutal natural convection across an inclined square enclosure partially filled with a porous medium

Abstract

The present study is a numerical inspection of the natural convection with double diffusion in a tilted square cavity filled with a vertical bi-layered composed porous and an adjacent fluid. Isotropic and homogeneous porous layer is considered in this case study. The porous layer is saturated by an aqueous solution with a Prandtl number Pr = 7. The horizontal walls are considered impermeable and adiabatic, while uniform concentrations and temperatures are set on the vertical walls. The Thomas algorithm is employed to find a solution for the system of the governing equations. The divergence of the non-linear system is avoided by introducing under–relaxation factors. The effects of the various non-dimensional governing parameters namely the thickness of porous layer, Rayleigh number, buoyancy ratio, Lewis number, cavity inclination angle, and the thermal conductivity ratio on the thermo-solutal natural convection and the rate of mass and thermal exchange are highlighted and discussed. The predicted findings are given in terms of flow patterns, thermal fields, and iso-concentration lines. The variation of the velocity field, stream function, Sherwood number, and Nusselt number is also inspected. The numerical results show complex flow structure modifying the local transfer (Nusselt and Sherwood numbers).

Keywords

• Natural convection
• Thermo-solutal convection
• Partially porous medium
• Cavity inclination
• Thermal and mass exchange