Natural convection in symmetrically interconnected tilted layers

The steady thermal convection in symmetrically interconnected, fluid and porous tilted layers has been studied. The layers are surrounded by an impervious rock which is affected by a vertical temperature gradient. Numerical and experimental results were obtained for the temperature distribution in the rock and the convective flow within the layers. Regimes corresponding to small Rayleigh numbers were analyzed because of their relevancy in the geophysical context. The effects of the Rayleigh number and the tilting angle of the layers on the temperature distributions, convection and heat transfer are discussed. Numerical results show a good agreement with the experimental data gotten by the PIV technique and infrared thermography.