Natural convection above a heated horizontal surface in a fluid saturated porous medium
- Texas A and M Univ., College Station, TX (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Geothermal energy extraction has motivated fundamental research in natural convection in fluid saturated porous media. A numerical study of natural convection from a heated upward facing finite horizontal surface in a fluid-saturated porous medium is presented. The Rayleigh number range for which two-dimensional flows occur is numerically determined as 40 {le} Ra {le} 600. At higher Rayleigh numbers, the flow is shown to become three-dimensional with multiple plume formation and growth. At lower Rayleigh numbers, the transport is dominated by conduction, and there is greater uncertainty in the numerical determination of heat transfer rates by convection models. For the two-dimensional flows, the correlation for the Nusselt number is obtained as Nu = 3.092 Ra{sup 0.272}. The fundamental physical mechanisms of convection in a vast porous medium are presented and explained with the aid of the numerical results.
- OSTI ID:
- 485087
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-970146--; ISBN 1-890277-03-7
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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