Natural Convection in a Porous Cavity with Sinusoidal Heating on Both Sidewalls.

A numerical study has been performed on buoyancy-induced convection in a square porous cavity. The vertical sidewalls of the cavity are maintained with sinusoidal temperature distribution. The finite volume method is used to numerically solve the nondimensional governing equations. The Brinkman Forchheimer extended Darcy model is used in the present study. The results are analyzed over a range of the amplitude ratio, phase deviation, porosity, and Grashof and Darcy numbers. It is found that the heat transfer rate is increased when increasing the amplitude ratio, porosity, and Darcy number. The nonuniform heating on both sidewalls provides higher heat transfer rate than the nonuniform heating of one wall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]