| This dissertation investigates the natural convection of flow within a fluid-saturated, two-dimensional, rectangular enclosure containing several discrete, conducting, and disconnected solid objects. Numerical studies for configurations with 1, 4, 9, 16, 36, and 64 evenly distributed square solid blocks heated from one of the side walls, and heated from the bottom wall have been performed. Isothermal, constant heat flux, and transient boundary conditions have been considered. Results are presented for porosity (o) maintained at 0.64, the solid-to-fluid thermal conductivity ratio at (kappa) at 1, the Rayleigh number (Ra) varying from 105 to 108, and the Prandtl number (Pr) from 0.01 to 1. Correlations between the average Nusselt number and the Rayleigh number have been proposed for the cases of enclosures heated from the side with isothermal and constant heat flux boundary conditions. |
