THERMOCONVECTIVE FLOW IN A SATURATED, ISOTROPIC, HOMOGENEOUS POROUS-MEDIUM USING BRINKMANS MODEL - NUMERICAL STUDY

Numerical results generated by a highly efficient finite-difference me thod (originated by Keller for aerodynamical flows at the California I nstitute of Technology in 1970), and a robust double shooting Runge-Ku tta-Merson scheme are presented for the boundary layer equations repre senting the convection flow of a viscous incompressible fluid past a h ot vertical flat plate embedded in a non-Darcy porous medium. Viscous dissipation due to mechanical work is included in the temperature fiel d equation. The computations for both solution techniques are compared at the leading edge (xi = 0.0) and found to be in excellent agreement . The effects of the viscous heating parameter (Ec), thermal conductiv ity ratio (lambda) and a Darcy porous parameter (Re/GrDa) on the fluid velocities, temperatures, local shear stress and wall heat transfer r ate are discussed with applications to geothermal and industrial flows .