Viscous dissipation effects on free convection in a porous cavity

The effect of viscous dissipation on the steady free convection in a square cavity filled with a porous medium is numerically studied in the present paper. The left vertical wall of the cavity is suddenly heated to a constant temperature T-h, while the right wall is suddenly cooled to a constant temperature T-c. Both the horizontal walls are adiabatic. The finite volume numerical method is used to solve the non-dimensional governing equations. The results show that the viscous dissipation effect reduces the heat transfer rate, and the average Nusselt number in the porous cavity decreases with the increase of the viscous dissipation parameter. (C) 2004 Elsevier Science Ltd.