Numerical simulation of three-dimensional double-diffusive natural convection in porous media by boundary element method

The paper presents numerical results for three-dimensional double-diffusive natural convection in a cubic enclosure fully filled with fluid saturated porous media. Two opposite vertical walls of the enclosure are subjected to different values of temperature and concentration, which causes buoyant and diffusive flow in the porous media domain. Mathematical model is based on the Brinkman-extended Darcy formulation as a governing momentum equation, which is coupled with the energy and species equations. The three-dimensional boundary element method based solver was used to solve the obtained set of partial differential equations. The existing numerical algorithm primarily derived for the pure fluid flow simulations was adopted to simulate transport phenomena in porous media. It is based on the combination of single and subdomain boundary element method, which solves the velocity-vorticity formulation of the governing equations. In the paper the influence of some governing parameters, specially the Rayleigh number, Darcy number and buoyancy coefficient are investigated in order to analyze the heat and mass transfer through porous enclosure. The numerical code is verified by comparison of the results with available previous numerical data found in the literature.