SOME NATURAL-CONVECTION FLOWS SATURATED IN POROUS-MEDIA

A regular two-parameter perturbation analysis is presented here to study the effects of both first-order and second-order resistances due to a solid matrix on the natural convection flows saturated in porous media. Four different flows have been studied, those adjacent to an isothermal surface, a uniform heat flux surface, a plane plume and flow generated from a horizontal line energy source on a vertical adiabatic surface. Computed first-order perturbation quantities are presented for all these flows. The numerical results of the perturbation analysis for the four conditions with various Prandtl numbers are tabulated. The velocity distributions for the first and the second approximations are shown in the figures.