Effect of porosity on natural convective heat transfer in a fluid saturated porous medium

The effect of porosity on natural convective flow and heat transfer in a fluid saturated porous medium has been investigated using Galerkin's finite element method. A generalized non-Darcy flow model with porosity as a separate parameter is used. Results indicate that the non-Darcy regime is highly sensitive to porosity changes. A variation of the order of 40% in the average Nusselt number is possible with change in the porosity, for the Rayleigh and Darcy number ranges considered.