Heat and mass transfer into a porous annulus found between two horizontal concentric circular cylinders

Abstract

This numerical work refers to the study of natural convection driven by cooperating thermal and solutal buoyancy forces, into a porous annulus found between a cold (less concentric) outer circular enclosure and a hot (concentric) inner cylinder. The physical model for the momentum conservation equation makes use of the Brinkman extension of the classical Darcy equation, the set of coupled equations is solved using the finite volume method and the SIMPLER algorithm. To account for the effects of the main parameters such the Lewis number, the buoyancy ratio and the cylinders aspect ratio as well, heat and mass transfer characteristics are inspected. Summarizing the numerical predictions, the dynamic, thermal and solutal fields are found strongly dependent on the governing studied parameters. It is to note that the validity of the computing code used was ascertained by comparing our results with the numerical ones already available in the literature