Free convection from a vertical cylinder embedded in a porous medium filled with cold water

A free convection boundary layer flow along a heated vertical cylinder embedded in a porous medium saturated with pure or saline water at low temperatures, up to 20oC, is considered. The boundary layer analysis is formulated in terms of Darcy's law and a new density equation of state, which is of very high accuracy and of simple form, is postulated. Numerical solutions are presented and the flow field characteristics are analysed in detail for both cases of downward and upward flows. A very good agreement between the present results and those reported for particular situations was found.