Natural convection heat transfer in a porous layer with internal flow obstructions

This numerical study documents the effect of internal flow obstructions on heat transfer through a 2-dim. porous layer heated from the side. Three types of flow obstructions have been considered. Horizontal diathermal partitions were found to decrease the heat transfer rate in cases where the overall heat transfer was dominated by convection. In the conduction-dominated regime, horizontal diathermal partitions were found to increase the heat transfer rate slightly. Horizontal adiabatic partitions, on the other hand, were found to increase the heat transfer rate when the dominating mechanism is convection. Finally, vertical diathermal partitions were shown to reduce the heat transfer rate by roughly 50% in the convection-dominated regime. Numerical heat transfer results are reported in the domain 0.1 < L/H < 2 and 50 < RaH < 1000, where L/H is the length/height ratio and RaH is the Darcy-modified Rayleigh number based on height.