Simulation of Natural Convection in a horizontal channel with heat sources mounted with porous blocks by the lattice Boltzmann method (MRT-LBM)

Abstract

In this paper, laminar natural convection in a horizontal channel provided with porous blocks periodically distributed on its lower adiabatic surface has been analyzed. This numerical study is based on the multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The two-dimensional model D2Q9 is adopted to solve the flow field, while the D2Q5 model is applied to solve the temperature field. The objective of the study is to analyze the effect of the Darcy number (10-1 ≤ Da ≤ 10-6), Rayleigh number (103 ≤ Ra ≤ 107) and the relative porous blocks height (1/8 ≤ D ≤ 1/2). The obtained results show the important effect of these parameters, which cannot be neglected, on both flow and the heat transfer structure, within this kind of channels.