Transp Porous Med (2012) 91:697–715 DOI 10.1007/s11242-011-9867-x Analysis of Heat and Mass Transfer in a Vertical Annular Porous Cylinder Using FEM Irfan Anjum Badruddin · N. J. Salman Ahmed · Abdullah A. A. A. Al-Rashed · Jeevan Kanesan · Sarfaraz Kamangar · H. M. T. Khaleed Received: 8 April 2011 / Accepted: 27 August 2011 / Published online: 16 September 2011 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 Abstract The present study is intended to study heat and mass transfer in a vertical annular cylinder embedded with saturated porous medium. The inner surface of cylinder is main- tained at uniform wall temperature and uniform wall concentration. The governing partial differential equations are non-dimensionalised and solved by using finite element method (FEM). The porous medium is discritised using triangular elements with uneven element size. Large number of smaller-sized elements are placed near the walls of the annulus to capture the smallest variation in solution parameters. The results are reported for both aiding and opposing flows. The effects of various non-dimensional numbers such as buoyancy ratio, Lewis number, Rayleigh number, aspect ratio, etc on heat and mass transfer are discussed. The temperature and concentration profiles are presented. Keywords Heat and mass transfer · Porous medium · Darcy flow · Vertical annulus · FEM I. A. Badruddin (B ) · N. J. Salman Ahmed · S. Kamangar Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia e-mail: Irfan_magami@Rediffmail.com A. A. A. A. Al-Rashed Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, Industrial Training Institute, 13092 Adiliya, Kuwait J. Kanesan Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia H. M. T. Khaleed Department of Mechanical Engineering, Anjuman Engineering College, Bhatkal 581320, India 123