Buoyancy-driven convection in a ventilated porous medium

• Author / Creator

  Roes, Mark A

• Consider an open control volume consisting of a porous medium submerged in a surrounding ambient fluid of density ρa. The top and bottom of the control volume allow ambient fluid to enter the porous medium. Saline fluid of density ρs>ρa is supplied at a constant rate of Qo near the top of the control volume resulting in a descending plume that migrates downward through the porous medium entraining ambient fluid as it falls. Plume fluid discharges along the lower boundary where it drains into the surrounding external fluid through a series of small fissures of area A. The dense fluid accumulates along the lower boundary until a steady state in which the rate of draining is balanced by the influx from the plume. The resulting lower layer depth is h. The objective of this thesis is to develop a theoretical model to predict h and discuss the comparison of the model against experimental measurements of h.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Ventilated
  • Convection
  • Porous medium

• Graduation date

  Spring 2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3MM5J

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.