Effects of Time-Periodic Thermal Boundary Conditions and Internal Heating on Heat Transport in a Porous Medium

The effects of time-periodic boundary temperatures and internal heating on Nusselt number in the Benard-Darcy convective problem has been considered. The amplitudes of temperature modulation at the lower and upper surfaces are considered to be very small. By performing a weakly non-linear stability analysis, the Nusselt number is obtained in terms of the amplitude of convection, which is governed by the non-autonomous Ginzburg-Landau equation, derived for the stationary mode of convection. The effects of internal Rayleigh number, amplitude and frequency of modulation, thermo-mechanical anisotropies, and Vadasz number on heat transport have been analyzed and depicted graphically. Increasing values of internal Rayleigh number results in the enhancement of heat transport in the system. Further, the study establishes that the heat transport can be controlled effectively by a mechanism that is external to the system.