Abstract

Two – dimensional, steady natural convection in a rectangular
cavity filled with a heat generating saturated porous medium has been
studied numerically for the case when the vertical walls of the cavity are
isothermal and the horizontal walls are either adiabatic or cold. Finite
difference method was used to transform the momentum and energy
equations from the differential form to the algebraic form; relaxation
method was used to solve the momentum equation, while (L.S.O.R.)
method was used to solve the energy equation for Rayleigh No. ranges (10
≤ Ra ≤ 104). Results are presented in terms of the stream lines and
isotherms, the maximum temperature in the cavity and intermediate Nusselt
number. The thermal convection flow together with the uniform heat
generating produces a highly stratified medium at high Rayleigh numbers.
The horizontal wall boundary condition changes from adiabatic to cold
reduces (max) also it is found that heat transfer increases with increasing Rayligh number while it decrease with aspect ratio. The effect of aspect
ratio on heal transfer will appear when (Ra > 50).