Natural convection in vertical enclosures containing simultaneously fluid and porous layers

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Abstract
A numerical and experimental study is reported of natural convection in a vertical rectangular fluid enclosure that is partially filled with a fluid-saturated porous medium. Velocities, stresses, temperatures, and heat fluxes are assumed to be continuous across the fluid/porous-medium interface, and the conservation equations for the fluid and the porous regions are combined into a single set of equations for numerical solution. Thermocouples as well as a Mach-Zehnder interferometer are used to measure temperature distributions and infer fluid flow patterns within the fluid and the porous medium. For various test cells, porous-layer configurations and fluid-solid combinations, the model predictions show excellent agreement with the experimental measurements. It is found that the intensity of natural convection is always much stronger in the fluid regions, while the amount of fluid penetrating into the porous medium increases with increasing Darcy and Rayleigh numbers. The degree of penetration of fluid into the porous medium depends strongly on the porous-layer geometry and is less for a horizontal porous layer occupying the lower half of the test cell. If penetration takes place, the flow patterns in the fluid regions are significantly altered and the streamlines show cusps at the fluid/porous-medium interfaces. For a high effective-thermal-conductivity porous medium, natural convection in the medium is suppressed, while the isotherms bend sharply at the fluid/porous-medium interface.