Transient heat transfer in an originally isothermal cylinder filled with a porous medium after sudden change of wall temperature is studied experimentally and computationally. Lab-scale experiments with water as the interstitial fluid are used in order to imitate the conditions prevailing in large, air-filled industrial silos. The proposed model assumes isotropy of the porous medium, local thermal equilibrium between the phases, Darcy flow and applicability of the Boussinesq approximation. Its predictions are in satisfactory agreement with the experimental results. Simulations reveal the role of dimensionless parameters like the modified porous media Rayleigh number and the cylinder aspect ratio. A criterion for neglecting the influence of natural convection on heat transfer is established. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.