ItemArticle

Power law coefficient effects on buoyant heat transfer in porous trapezoidal enclosures

Title
Power law coefficient effects on buoyant heat transfer in porous trapezoidal enclosures
Creator
Vijaya Kumara, V.M.; Aswatha; Vasanth Kumar, R.; Hemanth Kumar, C.B.; Mohan Kumar, G.; Thejaraju, R.; Manjunatha, C.
Description
The investigation of steady, incompressible, laminar mixed convective fluid flow within two different types of trapezoidal enclosures filled with saturated water and study explores how the power-law index governs buoyancy-driven heat transfer in a porous trapezoidal cavity filled with non-Newtonian fluids. Unlike Newtonian fluids, non-Newtonian fluids exhibit flow behavior that directly depends on the power-law index, which characterizes their shear-dependent viscosity. We formulate the governing equations in terms of the stream function and temperature and solve them using a validated, in-house MATLAB solver. Embedding a porous matrix within a trapezoidal enclosure creates intricate interactions between convective currents and conductive resistance. By performing numerical simulations across a range of Rayleigh numbers (Ra = 102 to 2 103) and boundary conditions, we systematically assess how variations in the power-law index alter local velocity fields, temperature distributions and overall heat-transfer rates. Our results reveal that increasing the power-law index strengthens convective flow and raises the average Nusselt number, whereas decreasing the index shifts the balance toward diffusion-dominated transport. These findings offer practical guidance for enhancing thermal management in industrial systems that employ both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids within porous structures. The study presents new empirical correlations linking Nu, Ra and power law co-efficients offering a practical tool for engineering design. Unlike previous works that focused primarily on Newtonian fluids or simplified geometries, this work provides a detailed analysis of non-Newtonian effects in realistic porous enclosures. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of convective mechanisms in complex therm-ofluid systems and offer guidance for optimizing thermal performance in engineering applications. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.
Source
Interactions ;Volume;247;Issue;1;Article No.;4;
Date
01-01-2026
Publisher
Springer Nature
Subject
Buoyant heat transfer; Laminar flow; Porous media; Saturated water; Trapezoidal enclosure
Coverage
Vijaya Kumara V.M., Bangalore Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Bangalore, 560 004, India; Aswatha, Bangalore Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Bangalore, 560 004, India; Vasanth Kumar R., Bangalore Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Bangalore, 560 004, India; Hemanth Kumar C.B., Bangalore Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Bangalore, 560 004, India; Mohan Kumar G., Bangalore Institute of Technology, Karnataka, Bangalore, 560 004, India; Thejaraju R., Christ Deemed to be University, Karnataka, Bangalore, 560 074, India; Manjunatha C., AMC Engineering College, Karnataka, Bangalore, 560 083, India
Rights
Restricted Access; Hardcopy may be available in the library
Relation
ISSN: 30050731;
Format
online
Language
English
Type
Article

Citation

Vijaya Kumara, V.M.; Aswatha; Vasanth Kumar, R.; Hemanth Kumar, C.B.; Mohan Kumar, G.; Thejaraju, R.; Manjunatha, C., “Power law coefficient effects on buoyant heat transfer in porous trapezoidal enclosures,” CHRIST (Deemed To Be University) Institutional Repository, accessed June 18, 2026, https://archives.christuniversity.in/items/show/21891.

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