Three-dimensional double-diffusive convection in a porous cubic enclosure due to opposing gradients of temperature and concentration

A three-dimensional mathematical model based on the Brinkman extended Darcy equation has been used to study double-diffusive natural convection in a fluid-saturated porous cubic enclosure subject to opposing and horizontal gradients of temperature and concentration. The flow is driven by conditions of constant temperature and concentration imposed along the two vertical sidewalls of the cubic enclosure, while the remaining walls are impermeable and adiabatic. The numerical simulations presented here span a wide range of porous thermal Rayleigh number, buoyancy ratio and Lewis number to identify the different steady-state flow patterns and bifurcations. The effect of the governing parameters on the domain of existence of the three-dimensional flow patterns is studied for opposing flows (N < 0). Comprehensive Nusselt and Sherwood number data are presented as functions of the governing parameters. The present results indicate that the double-diffusive flow in enclosures with opposing buoyancy forces is strictly three-dimensional for a certain range of parameters. At high Lewis numbers multiple dipole vortices form in the transverse planes near the horizontal top and bottom surfaces, which the two-dimensional models fail to detect. The dipolar vortex structures obtained are similar to those created in laboratory experiments by the injection of fluid into a stratified medium.