NATURAL-CONVECTION OF NON-NEWTONIAN FLUIDS IN AN INCLINED POROUS LAYER

Thermally driven flow in a thin, inclined, rectangular cavity filled w ith a non-Newtonian fluid saturated porous medium is considered. A con stant heat flux is applied for heating and cooling the two side walls of the layer while the other two walls are insulated. The problem is s olved on the basis of a modified Darcy equation. In the limit of a thi n layer, using a parallel flow approximation and an integral form of t he energy equation, the governing equations are reduced to one ordinar y differential equation. Solutions for the flow and temperature fields , and the Nusselt number are obtained for various Rayleigh numbers, R, the inclination angle of the cavity, phi, and the power-law index, n. A numerical study of the same problem is also conducted by solving th e complete system of governing equations. A good agreement is found be tween the parallel flow analysis and the numerical simulation.