CONVECTIVE HEAT-TRANSFER IN AN ANNULAR POROUS LAYER WITH CENTRIFUGAL FORCE-FIELD

The present study deals with natural convection in an annular porous l ayer under the influence of a centrifugal force field. It is assumed t hat the outer boundary is heated by a constant heat flux, while the in ner boundary is perfectly insulated. The problem is formulated in term s of Darcy-Boussinesq equations and solved using analytical and numeri cal techniques. An analytical solution for the flow and heat transfer variables, based on a concentric flow assumption, is obtained in terms of the Rayleigh number and the radius ratio. Finite amplitude results are verified by a numerical approach. Predicted thresholds in terms o f critical Rayleigh numbers are verified by a linear stability analysi s. Results obtained from the numerical approach indicate the existence of multiple solutions differing by the number of cells involved.