Natural Convection and Radiation Heat Transfer in a Vertical Porous Layer with a Hexagonal Honeycomb Core (Part 1: Numerical Analysis)

Combined heat transfer characteristics were obtained numerically for threedimensional natural convection and thermal radiation in a long and wide vertical porous layer with a hexagonal honeycomb core. We assumed that the porous layer was both homogeneous and isotropic. The pure Darcy law for fluid flow and Rosselandʹs approximation for radiation were used. The numerical methodology was based on an algebraic coordinate transformation technique and the transformed governing equations were solved using the SIMPLE algorithm. The effect of radiation on the heat transfer characteristics was investigated over a wide range of radiation numbers and temperature ratios for two Darcy-Ray leigh number values {Ra* = 100 and 1000) and for a fixed aspect ratio of H/L = 1. The results are presented in the form of combined radiation and convection heat transfer coefficients and are compared with the corresponding values for pure natural convection.