Free Convection in Porous Media

Introduction

This model exemplifies the use of COMSOL Multiphysics for

modeling of free convection in porous media.

It shows the following COMSOL Multiphysics features:

Porous media flow
Multiphysics between fluid flow and heat transfer
Results that are in excellent agreement with published models in the research
journals in the field

The model has applications mainly in the fields of:

Geophysics
Chemical engineering

Geometry, Heating and Cooling Surfaces

Tc

Th-(Th-Tc)*s

Th

Tc

Th-(Th-Tc)*s

Enclosed domain with porous

material

The walls of the domain are

impervious to flow

The walls are either heating or

cooling surfaces with linear
temperature profiles uniting the
cool and hot surfaces

The arc length s goes from zero to

1 along a boundary segment.

Domain Equations
Momentum and mass balances

u u
u 0

u p gT T Tc
k
Boussinesq buoyant lifting
term links flow and heat

Heat balance
kT c p T u 0

Brinkman equations for porous media flow

u u
u 0
p
u

g
T
T
Tc

u p g T T Tc
k
Solution technique:
Parametric solver to
increase T from zero to
problem- specific value

= pressure
= vector of directional velocities
= dynamic viscosity
= permeability
= fluid density
= gravity
= thermal expansion coefficient
= temperature from heat transfer application
= initial temperature

Convection and conduction

K e T C L T u 0
T
Ke
CL
cp
u

= temperature
= effective thermal conductivity of fluid and solid medium
= fluid volumetric heat capacity CL= cp
= fluid specific heat capacity
= vector of directional fluid velocities from flow application

Boundary Conditions
Brinkman equations
u0
no slip so velocity drops to zero at wall
p pref

for unique solution fix pressure at a point

Convection and conduction

T Tc

T Th

T Th s Th Tc

Results
Dimensionless temperature

Velocity field

Concluding Remarks

The model is simple to define and solve in COMSOL Multiphysics

The results give excellent agreement with published scientific papers, see
M. Anwar Hossain and Mike Wilson, Natural convection flow in a fluidsaturated porous medium enclosed by non-isothermal walls with heat
generation, International Journal of Thermal Sciences, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 41
(2002) 447454.