The aim of the present work is analysis of heat flow during natural convection inside a trapezoidal porous cavity having wavy top surface. The bottom wall of the cavity is sinusoidally heated whereas the top wall is kept at constant low temperature and the side walls are maintained adiabatic. The physical problem has been represented mathematically by various governing equations along with the corresponding boundary conditions and hence solved by using Galerkin Finite Element scheme. Numerical simulations were carried out and the flow and thermal fields inside the cavity were analyzed in terms of distribution of isothermal lines (θ), streamlines (ψ) and heatlines (Π). To compare heat transfer characteristics local Nusselt number (Nu), and average Nusselt number (Nu_(avg)) along the hot bottom wall are studied for various system parameters, such as, Rayleigh number (Ra) and Darcy number (Da). The range of Ra, Da considered in the present study are as follows; 10~4 ≤ Ra ≤ 10~6, 10~(-5) ≤ Da ≤ 10~(-3). The present study has been conducted for the trapezoidal cavity being filled with two different types of fluids; water (Pr = 7.2), and molten gallium (Pr = 0.026). It has been found that an increase in flow intensity and heat transfer occurs at higher Rayleigh number (Ra) and Darcy number (Da) whereas the effect of Prandtl number (Pr) is somewhat negligible.
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