Natural Convection in Porous Triangular Enclosure with a Circular Obstacle in Presence of Heat Generation

Abstract

The flow and heat transfer due to natural convection in a triangular enclosure filled with a fluid saturated porous medium with a circular body in presence of heat generation has been numerically analyzed. The bottom wall of the enclosure is heated at a constant temperature while the left and right inclined wall of the cavity is maintained at cold temperature. The cavity contains a circular body which is insulated. The governing equations are solved numerically subject to suitable boundary conditions by Galerkin’s weighted residuals scheme of finite element method. Results are presented by streamlines, isotherms, mean Nusselt numbers for the variant parameters such as heat generation (λ) and radius of the circular body (R). Prandtl number (Pr) and Rayleigh number (Ra) are considered unchanged. It is found that these parameters have significant effect on the flow and temperature fields inside the cavity.