Abstract—This study reports a numerical investigation of two-dimensional double-diffusive natural convection heat and mass transfer in a rectangular porous cavity with partially thermally active sidewalls. The length of the active part is equal to half of the cavity height. The top and bottom of the enclosure and inactive part of the sidewalls are assumed to be insulated and impermeable to mass transfer. The active part of the right sidewall has a lower temperature and concentration than the left one. The coupled differential equations are discretized by the finite difference method and are solved using the SOR method. The results are obtained for different active sections and different parameters such as aspect ratio and Darcy number. In addition, the heat and mass transfer rate in the cavity is measured in terms of the average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers.

Index Terms—double-diffusive, rectangular cavity, porous medium, partially active walls, natural convection, heat and mass transfer

Cite: Rasoul Nikbakhti and Ahmad Saberi, "Natural Convection Heat and Mass Transfer in a Rectangular Porous Cavity Having Partially Thermally Active Walls," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 72-76, January 2016. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.5.1.72-76