Natural convection suppression in a horizontal porous annulus by azimuthal baffles

Numerical studies are presented for the suppression of natural convection heat transfer in a horizontal porous annulus heated from the inner surface. Azimuthal baffles are employed to reduce heat transfer, and the effect of the number of baffles and their positions are examined. It is found that for a single baffle, the baffle position has a negligible effect on heat transfer in the boundary layer regime. An increase of the number of baffles is effective to suppression of natural covection and we show that the Nuusselt number is inversely proportional to (N+1) where N is the number of baffles.