Analysis of Benard convection in rectangular cavities filled with a porous medium

Benard convection in fluid-saturated porous cavities is studied in this research. The unsteady Navier-Stokes equations and energy equation describing the transient heat and fluid now are expressed in primitive variables. A semi-implicit splitting finite element method is adopted to solve the coupled governing equations. The phenomena are discussed for a series of Rayleigh numbers, aspect ratios and different porous media, The results show that the strength of Bi-nard convection and heat-transfer rate become weaker due to the existence of more flow restriction in the porous media. Furthermore, the progress of flow evolution is also retarded compared with the non-porous medium. In some conditions, the heat transfer phenomenon is obviously altered because of the dramatic change in the now pattern for different porous media.