Numerical simulation of natural convection in an open-ended square cavity filled with porous medium by lattice Boltzmann method

In the present work, natural convection in an open-ended square cavity packed with porous medium is simulated. The double-population approach is used to simulate hydrodynamic and thermal fields, and the Taylor series expansion and the least-squares-based lattice Boltzmann method has been implemented to extend the thermal model. The effect of a porous medium is taken into account by introducing the porosity into the equilibrium distribution function and adding a force term to the evolution equation. The Brinkman-Forchheimer equation, which includes the viscous and inertial terms, is applied to predict the heat transfer and fluid dynamics in the non-Darcy regime. The present model is validated with the previous literature. A comprehensive parametric study of natural convective flows is performed for various values of Rayleigh number and porosity. It is found that these two parameters have considerable influence on heat transfer. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.