Heatline visualization of natural convection in a porous cavity occupied by a fluid with temperature-dependent viscosity

Temperature dependent viscosity effect in buoyancy driven flow, of a gas or a liquid, in an enclosure filled with a porous medium is studied numerically, based on the general model of momentum transfer in a porous medium. The Arrhenius model, which proposes an exponential form of viscosity-temperature relation, is applied to examine three cases of viscosity-temperature relation: constant, decreasing and increasing. Application of arithmetic and harmonic mean values of the viscosity is also investigated for their ability to represent the Nusselt number versus the effective Rayleigh number. Heatlines are illustrated for a more comprehensive investigation of the problem

Analysis of the Brinkman-Forchheimer equations with slip boundary conditions

In this work, we study the Brinkman-Forchheimer equations driven under slip boundary conditions of friction type. We prove the existence and uniqueness of weak solutions by means of regularization combined with the Faedo-Galerkin approach. Next we discuss the continuity of the solution with respect to Brinkman's and Forchheimer's coefficients. Finally, we show that the weak solution of the corresponding stationary problem is stable

Effects of viscous dissipation and boundary conditions on forced convection in a channel occupied by a saturated porous medium

Forced convection with viscous dissipation in a parallel plate channel filled by a saturated porous medium is investigated numerically. Three different viscous dissipation models are examined. Two different sets of wall conditions are considered: isothermal and isoflux. Analytical expressions are also presented for the asymptotic temperature profile and the asymptotic Nusselt number. With isothermal walls, the Brinkman number significantly influences the developing Nusselt number but not the asymptotic one. At constant wall heat flux, both the developing and the asymptotic Nusselt numbers are affected by the value of the Brinkman number. The Nusselt number is sensitive to the porous medium shape factor under all conditions considered

Effects of viscous dissipation and boundary conditions on forced convection in a channel occupied by a saturated porous medium

Forced convection with viscous dissipation in a parallel plate channel filled by a saturated porous medium is investigated numerically. Three different viscous dissipation models are examined. Two different sets of wall conditions are considered: isothermal and isoflux. Analytical expressions are also presented for the asymptotic temperature profile and the asymptotic Nusselt number. With isothermal walls, the Brinkman number significantly influences the developing Nusselt number but not the asymptotic one. At constant wall heat flux, both the developing and the asymptotic Nusselt numbers are affected by the value of the Brinkman number. The Nusselt number is sensitive to the porous medium shape factor under all conditions considered

Effects of temperature dependent viscosity on Bénard convection in a porous medium using a non-Darcy model

Temperature-dependent viscosity variation effect on Benard convection, of a gas or a liquid, in an enclosure filled with a porous medium is studied numerically, based on the general model of momentum transfer in a porous medium. The exponential form of viscosity-temperature relation is applied to examine three cases of viscosity-temperature relation: constant (mu = mu(C)), decreasing (down to 0.13 mu C) and increasing (up to 7.39 mu(C)). Effects of fluid viscosity variation on isotherms, streamlines, and the Nusselt number are studied. Application of the effective and average Rayleigh number is examined. Defining a reference temperature, which does not change with the Rayleigh number but increases with the Darcy number, is found to be a viable option to account for temperature-dependent viscosity variation. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd

Double diffusion natural convection in a square cavity filled with nanofluid

Double diffusive natural convection of nanofluid is commonly found in renewable energy engineering. However, nowadays our understanding on its fundamental characteristics is still limited. Especially, three crucial questions on its fundament have not been answered yet: (1) its performance not only in laminar regimes but also beyond laminar regimes, (2) the influence of the ratio of buoyancy forces on heat and mass transfer, (3) the correlation among the dimonsionless quantities which describe the features of this kind of convection. The present work tries to reveal the characteristics of double diffusive natural convection of nanofluid over a wide range, from laminar regimes to turbulent regimes, with the aid of numerical experiments. It is observed that the behavior of nanofluid in the laminar regimes is different from that in the turbulent regimes. Some conclusions presented in previous literature for laminar double diffusive of nanofluid may be invalid in its turbulent counterpart. The effect of the ratio of buoyancy forces on heat and mass transfer of nanofluid possesses some similarities with the pure base fluid as well as some obvious differences. Especially, a power-like correlation among the Nusselt number, Sherwood number, Rayleigh number, ratio of buoyancy forces and nanoparticle volume fraction has been extracted for the first time through our numerical experiments

Onset of Surface-Tension-Driven Benard Convection

Experiments with shadowgraph visualization reveal a subcritical transition to a hexagonal convection pattern in thin liquid layers that have a free upper surface and are heated from below. The measured critical Marangoni number (84) and observation of hysteresis (3%) agree with theory. In some experiments, imperfect bifurcation is observed and is attributed to deterministic forcing caused in part by the lateral boundaries in the experiment.Comment: 4 pages. The RevTeX file has a macro allowing various styles. The appropriate style is "mypprint" which is the defaul

Effects of temperature-dependent viscosity variation on entropy generation, heat and fluid flow through a porous-saturated duct of rectangular cross-section

Effect of temperature-dependent viscosity on fully developed forced convection in a duct of rectangular cross-section occupied by a fluid-saturated porous medium is investigated analytically. The Darcy flow model is applied and the viscosity-temperature relation is assumed to be an inverse-linear one. The case of uniform heat flux on the walls, i.e. the H boundary condition in the terminology of Kays and Crawford, is treated. For the case of a fluid whose viscosity decreases with temperature, it is found that the effect of the variation is to increase the Nusselt number for heated walls. Having found the velocity and the temperature distribution, the second law of thermodynamics is invoked to find the local and average entropy generation rate. Expressions for the entropy generation rate, the Bejan number, the heat transfer irreversibility, and the fluid flow irreversibility are presented in terms of the Brinkman number, the Péclet number, the viscosity variation number, the dimensionless wall heat flux, and the aspect ratio (width to height ratio). These expressions let a parametric study of the problem based on which it is observed that the entropy generated due to flow in a duct of square cross-section is more than those of rectangular counterparts while increasing the aspect ratio decreases the entropy generation rate similar to what previously reported for the clear flow case

Plants lacking the main light-harvesting complex retain photosystem II macro-organization

Photosystem II (PSII) is a key component of photosynthesis, the process of converting sunlight into the chemical energy of life. In plant cells, it forms a unique oligomeric macrostructure in membranes of the chloroplasts. Several light-harvesting antenna complexes are organized precisely in the PSII macrostructure—the major trimeric complexes (LHCII) that bind 70% of PSII chlorophyll and three minor monomeric complexes—which together form PSII supercomplexes. The antenna complexes are essential for collecting sunlight and regulating photosynthesis, but the relationship between these functions and their molecular architecture is unresolved. Here we report that antisense Arabidopsis plants lacking the proteins that form LHCII trimers have PSII supercomplexes with almost identical abundance and structure to those found in wild-type plants. The place of LHCII is taken by a normally minor and monomeric complex, CP26, which is synthesized in large amounts and organized into trimers. Trimerization is clearly not a specific attribute of LHCII. Our results highlight the importance of the PSII macrostructure: in the absence of one of its main components, another protein is recruited to allow it to assemble and function