Three-dimensional numerical investigation on thermosolutal convection of power-law fluids in anisotropic porous media

The present study simulates the 3D unsteady double-diffusive natural convection subject to opposing thermal and solutal buoyancy forces (N < 0) in a porous cubic by a generalized non-Darcy model, in which the effects of the crucial parameters such as the porous thermal Rayleigh numbers, buoyancy ratio and anisotropy ratio on the flow structure, heat and mass transfer of power-law fluids are investigated independently. The top and bottom walls are given different temperatures and concentrations, while the other walls are adiabatic and impermeable. A compact high order finite volume method is adopted to describe the flow structure and the resulting heat and mass transfer characteristic of non-Newtonian fluids in the anisotropy porous cubic. Our simulations show that the flow structure develops from conduction-dominated to convection-dominated as buoyancy ratio or anisotropy ratio or porous thermal Rayleigh number increases. The average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers keep constants during the conduction-dominated stage, then increase along the transition route. On the other hand, the impacts of different power-law indexes on the convection are mainly manifested in rheological properties, which elucidate that the shear-thinning fluids is more effective in heat and mass transfer enhancement than shear-thickening fluids. The studies may help us establish a physically reasonable methodology to systemically assess double-diffusive convection of non-Newtonian power-law fluids in anisotropy porous media in the real world.