Natural Convection Heat Transfer From a Horizontal Wavy Surface in a Porous Enclosure

The effect of surface undulations on the natural convection heat transfer from an isothermal surface in a Darcian fluid-saturated porous enclosure has been numerically analyzed using the finite element method on a graded nonuniform mesh system. The flow-driving Rayleigh number Ra together with the geometrical parameters of wave amplitude a, wave phase φ, and the number of waves N considered in the horizontal dimension of the cavity are found to influence the flow and heat transfer process in the enclosure. For Ra around 50 and above, the phenomenon of flow separation and reattachment is noticed on the waits of the enclosure. A periodic shift,n the reattachment point from the bottom wall to the adjacent walls in the clockwise direction, leading to the manifestation of cycles of unicellular and bicellular clockwise and counterclockwise flows, is observed, with the phase varying between 0° and 350°. The counterflow in the secondary circulation zone is intensified with the increase in the value of Ra. The counterflow on the wavy wall hinders the heat transfer into the system. An increase in either wave amplitude or the number of waves considered per unit length decreases the global heat flux into the system. Only marginal changes in global heat flux are noticed with increasing Ra. On the whole, the comparison of global heat flux results in the wavy wall case with those of the horizontal flat wall case shows that, in a porous enclosure, the wavy wall reduces the heat transfer into the system.