FREE CONVECTION IN A SATURATED POROUS MEDIUM WITH VARYING TEMPERATURE ADJACENT TO A VERTICAL IMPERMEABLE PLATE AT 4C

Several studies on convective flow in boundary layer regime were analyzed for the case of an isothermal vertical plate or variable temperature dipped in a porous medium saturated with water at 3.98 ? C. However, in the situations where the vertical plate is at a constant temperature of 3.98 ? C and the porous medium saturated with water at the variable temperature are also realistic. In this study we are interested in the study of natural convection around a vertical plate at a temperature of 3.98 ?C under the conditions previously described. The influence of the anisotropic parameters such as the permeability ratio and the anisotropic angle, as well as the Nusselt number and the effect of the maximum density were analyzed. The main conclusion is that the flow is downward, and the convective heat transfer rate admits a minimum and a maximum depending on the different parameters. The governing equations and boundary conditions were solved numerically by the 4th order of Runge-Kutta and shooting method before the scaling analysis.