Nonequilibrium natural convection in a differentially heated cavity filledwith a saturated porous matrix

Steady-state natural convection in an enclosure filled with a saturated por ous medium is investigated numerically. Brinkman-Forchheimer's extension of Darcy flow with a nonequilibrium model is used in the analysis. The paper intends to address the validity of the equilibrium model for natural convec tion. The predicted results indicated that the equilibrium model is difficu lt to justify for non-Darcy regime and when the solid thermal conductivity is higher than the fluid thermal conductivity. The maximum differences in t he temperatures between the two phases take place at the bottom-left corner and due to skew-symmetry of the problem at the upper-right corner.