Finite element simulations to explore thermofluidic transport mechanism in permeable medium by using Darcy Brinkman-Forchheimer model

Diversified utilizations of permeable domains are found in cooling systems, gas recovery, and insulation engineering. Therefore, this research focused on investigating the heat transport aspects imparted by the buoyantly driven flow of a viscous fluid saturated in a permeable L-shaped enclosure. Darcy Brinkman-Forchheimer model is considered in the present pagination to envision permeability aspects. In addition, entropy generation is considered to encapsulate the disordered form of the system. In this study, an l -shaped domain with heated steps and insulated horizontal boundaries was entertained, while the vertical walls are kept cold. Non-persistent buoyancy forces are employed to elucidate the impact of the gravitational forces. The mathematical formulation of the problem is examined in the form of a dimensionless coupled partial differential system after normalizing the variables. Subsequently, the Galerkin finite element method was implemented using a commercial multigrid software (COMSOL) to find a solution to the constructed problem. The influence of the included parameters on the related distributions and quantities of interest in a comparative sense is evaluated using sketches and tables. A comparison of the results along with a grid-independent test is also performed to ensure the reliability of the computational procedure and computed outcomes. It is inferred that the total entropy and averaged Nusselt number increase as the Darcy number increases by 21.39% and 10.76%, respectively, whereas the Bejan number exhibits the opposite trend. Raising the aperture ratio of the enclosure results in a reduction of the heat flux coefficient, and the ECOP also indicates a reduction in entropy.