Nonsimilar Boundary Layer Analysis of Free Convection Heat Transfer Over a Vertical Cylinder in Bidisperse Porous Media

This work presents a boundary layer analysis for the free convection heat transfer from a vertical cylinder in bidisperse porous media with constant wall temperature. A boundary layer analysis and the two-velocity two-temperature formulation are used to derive the nonsimilar governing equations. The transformed governing equations are solved by the cubic spline collocation method to yield computationally efficient numerical solutions. The effects of inter-phase heat transfer parameter, modified thermal conductivity ratio, and permeability ratio on the heat transfer and flow characteristics are studied. Results show that an increase in the modified thermal conductivity ratio and the permeability ratio can effectively enhance the free convection heat transfer of the vertical cylinder in a bidisperse porous medium. Moreover, the thermal nonequilibrium effects are strong for low values of the inter-phase heat transfer parameter.     

Natural Convection Boundary-Layer Flow in a Porous Medium with Temperature-Dependent Boundary Conditions

The natural convection boundary-layer flow on a surface embedded in a fluid-saturated porous medium is discussed in the case when the wall heat flux is related to the wall temperature through a power-law variation. The flow within the porous medium is assumed to be described by Darcy’s law and the Boussinesq approximation is assumed for the density variations. Two cases are discussed, (i) stagnation-point flow and (ii) flow along a vertical surface. The possible steady states are considered first with the governing partial equations reduced to ordinary differential equations by similarity transformations and these latter equations further transformed to previously studied free-convection problems. This identifies values of the exponent N in the power-law wall temperature variation, N = 3/2 for stagnation-point flows and 3/2 ≤ N ≤ 3 for the vertical surface, where similarity solutions do not exist. Time development for stagnation-point flows is seen to depend on N, for N <  3/2 the steady state is approached at large times, for N ≥ 3/2 a singularity develops at finite time leading to thermal runaway. Numerical solutions for the vertical surface, where the temperature-dependent boundary condition becomes more significant as the solution develops, show that, for N < 3/2, the corresponding similarity solution is approached, whereas for N >  3/2 the solution breaks down at a finite distance along the surface.     

Mixed convection boundary layer flow near stagnation-point on vertical surface with slip

This paper considers the steady mixed convection boundary layer flow of a viscous and incompressible fluid near the stagnation-point on a vertical surface with the slip effect at the boundary. The temperature of the sheet and the velocity of the external flow are assumed to vary linearly with the distance from the stagnation-point. The governing partial differential equations are first transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations, which are then solved numerically by a shooting method. The features of the flow and heat transfer characteristics for different values of the governing parameters are analyzed and discussed. Both assisting and opposing flows are considered. The results indicate that for the opposing flow, the dual solutions exist in a certain range of the buoyancy parameter, while for the assisting flow, the solution is unique. In general, the velocity slip increases the heat transfer rate at the surface, while the thermal slip decreases it.     

Mixed Convection Stagnation-Point Flow Over a Vertical Plate with Prescribed Heat Flux Embedded in a Porous Medium: Brinkman-Extended Darcy Formulation

This article considers the problem of mixed convection stagnation-point flow towards a vertical plate embedded in a porous medium with prescribed surface heat flux. It is assumed that the free stream velocity and the surface heat flux vary linearly from the stagnation point. Using a similarity transformation, the governing system of partial differential equations is transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations, before being solved numerically by a finite-difference method. The features of the flow and the heat transfer characteristics are analyzed and discussed. It is found that dual solutions exist for both buoyancy assisting and opposing flows.     

Natural Convection on a Horizontal Cone in a Porous Medium with Non-Uniform Wall Temperature/Concentration or Heat/Mass Flux and Suction/Injection

The steady natural convection flow on a horizontal cone embedded in a saturated porous medium with non-uniform wall temperature/concentration or heat/mass flux and suction/injection has been investigated. Non-similar solutions have been obtained. The nonlinear coupled differential equations under boundary layer approximations governing the flow have been numerically solved. The Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are found to depend on the buoyancy forces, suction/injection rates, variation of wall temperature/concentration or heat/mass flux, Lewis number and the non-Darcy parameter.     

Analysis of Heat and Mass Transfer in a Vertical Annular Porous Cylinder Using FEM

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 maintained 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.     

Conjugate free convection over a vertical slender hollow cylinder embedded in a porous medium

A numerical study of the steady conjugate free convection over a vertical slender, hollow circular cylinder with the inner surface at a constant temperature and embedded in a porous medium is reported. The governing boundary layer equations for the fluid-saturated porous medium over the cylinder along with the one-dimensional heat conduction equation for the cylinder are cast into dimensionless form, by using a non-similarity transformation. The resulting non-similarity equations with their corresponding boundary conditions are solved by using the Keller box method. Emphasis is placed on the effects caused by the wall conduction parameter, p, and calculations have covered a wide range of this parameter. Heat transfer results including the temperature profiles, the interface temperature profiles and the local Nusselt number are presented. Received on 17 November 1997     

Effect of an Inserted Porous Layer Located at a Wall of a Parallel Plate Channel on Forced Convection Heat Transfer

A theoretical study is performed on heat and fluid flow in partially porous medium filled parallel plate channel. A uniform symmetrical heat flux is imposed onto the boundaries of the channel partially filled with porous medium. The dimensional forms of the governing equations are solved numerically for different permeability and effective thermal conductivity ratios. Then, the governing equations are made dimensionless and solved analytically. The results of two approaches are compared and an excellent agreement is observed, indicating correctness of the both solutions. An overall Nusselt number is defined based on overall thermal conductivity and difference between the average temperature of walls and mean temperature to compare heat transfer in different channels with different porous layer thickness, Darcy number, and thermal conductivity ratio. Moreover, individual Nusselt numbers for upper and lower walls are also defined and obtained. The obtained results show that the maximum overall Nusselt number is achieved for thermal conductivity ratio of 1. At specific values of Darcy number and thermal conductivity ratio, individual Nusselt numbers approach to infinity since the value of wall temperatures approaches to mean temperature.     

Effect of Viscous Dissipation on the Boundary Layer Flow and Heat Transfer Past a Permeable Stretching Surface Embedded in a Porous Medium with a Second-Order Slip Using Chebyshev Finite Difference Method

This article investigates a theoretical and numerical study for the effect of viscous dissipation on the steady flow with heat transfer of Newtonian fluid toward a permeable stretching surface embedded in a porous medium with a second-order slip and thermal slip. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations are converted into nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) using similarity variables. The resulting ODEs are successfully solved numerically with the help of Chebyshev finite difference method. Graphically results are shown for non-dimensional velocities and temperature. The effects of the porous parameter, the suction (injection) parameter, Eckert number, first- and second-order velocity slip parameter, the thermal slip parameter and the Prandtl number on the flow and temperature profiles are presented. Moreover, the local skin-friction and Nusselt numbers are presented. A comparison of numerical results is made with the earlier published results under limiting cases.     

Radiation effects on combined convection over a vertical flat plate embedded in a porous medium of variable porosity

The present paper is concerned with the study of radiation effects on the combined (forced-free) convection flow of an optically dense viscous incompressible fluid over a vertical surface embedded in a fluid saturated porous medium of variable porosity with heat generation or absorption. The effects of radiation heat transfer from a porous wall on convection flow are very important in high temperature processes. The inclusion of radiation effects in the energy equation leads to a highly non-linear partial differential equations which are transformed to a system of ordinary differential equations using non-similarity transformation. These equations are then solved numerically using implicit finite-difference method subject to appropriate boundary and matching conditions. A parametric study of the physical parameters such as the particle diameter-based Reynolds number, the flow based Reynolds number, the Grashof number, the heat generation or absorption co-efficient and radiation parameter is conducted on temperature distribution. The effects of radiation and other physical parameters on the local skin friction and on local Nusselt number are shown graphically. It is interesting to observe that the momentum and thermal boundary layer thickness increases with the radiation and decrease with increase in the Prandtl number.     

Boundary layer flow and heat transfer of a dusty fluid flow over a stretching sheet with non-uniform heat source/sink

The present paper deals with the analysis of boundary layer flow and heat transfer of a dusty fluid over a stretching sheet with the effect of non-uniform heat source/sink. Here we consider two types of heating processes namely (i) prescribed surface temperature and (ii) prescribed surface heat flux. The momentum and thermal boundary layer equations of motion are solved numerically using Runge Kutta Fehlberg fourth–fifth order method (RKF45 Method). The effects of fluid particle interaction parameter, Eckert number, Prandtl number, Number of dust particle and non-uniform heat generation/absorption parameter on temperature distribution are analyzed and also the effect of wall temperature gradient function and wall temperature function are tabulated and discussed.     

Effects of thermal buoyancy and variable thermal conductivity on the MHD flow and heat transfer in a power-law fluid past a vertical stretching sheet in the presence of a non-uniform heat source

The paper considers the flow of a power-law fluid past a vertical stretching sheet. Effects of variable thermal conductivity and non-uniform heat source/sink on the heat transfer are addressed. The thermal conductivity is assumed to vary linearly with temperature. Similarity transformation is used to convert the governing partial differential equations into a set of coupled, non-linear ordinary differential equations. Two different types of boundary heating are considered, namely Prescribed power-law Surface Temperature (PST) and Prescribed power-law Heat Flux (PHF). Shooting method is used to obtain the numerical solution for the resulting boundary value problems. The effects of Chandrasekhar number, Grashof number, Prandtl number, non-uniform heat source/sink parameters, wall temperature parameter and variable thermal conductivity parameter on the dynamics are shown graphically in several plots. The skin friction and heat transfer coefficients are tabulated for a range of values of the parameters. Present study reveals that in a gravity affected flow buoyancy effect has a significant say in the control of flow and heat transfer.     

Free Convection Heat Transfer over a Vertical Cylinder in a Saturated Porous Medium Using a Local Thermal Non-equilibrium Model

In this article, free convection heat transfer over a vertical cylinder with variable surface temperature distributions in a porous medium is analyzed. It is assumed that the fluid and solid phases are not in local thermal equilibrium and, therefore, a two-temperature model of heat transfer is applied. The coupled momentum and energy equations are presented and then they are transformed into ordinary differential equations. The similarity equations are solved numerically. The resulting velocity, streamlines, temperature distributions for fluid and solid phases are shown for different values of parameters entering into the problem. The calculated values of the local Nusselt numbers for both solid and fluid phases are also shown.     

Effect of thermal dispersion on free convection in a fluid saturated porous medium

The present article considers a numerical study of thermal dispersion effect on the non-Darcy natural convection over a vertical flat plate in a fluid saturated porous medium. Forchheimer extension is considered in the flow equations. The coefficient of thermal diffusivity has been assumed to be the sum of molecular diffusivity and the dispersion thermal diffusivity due to mechanical dispersion. The non-dimensional governing equations are solved by the finite element method (FEM) with a Newton–Raphson solver. Numerical results for the details of the stream function, velocity and temperature contours and profiles as well as heat transfer rates in terms of Nusselt number are obtained. The study shows that the increase in thermal dispersion coefficient of the porous medium results in more heat energy to disperse away in the normal direction to the wall. This induces more fluid to flow along the wall, enhancing the heat transfer coefficient particularly near the wall.     

Stability of Flow with Viscous Dissipation in a Horizontal Porous Layer with an Open Boundary Having a Prescribed Temperature Gradient

A buoyancy-induced stationary flow with viscous dissipation in a horizontal porous layer is investigated. The lower boundary surface is impermeable and subject to a uniform heat flux. The upper open boundary has a prescribed, linearly varying, temperature distribution. The buoyancy-induced basic velocity profile is parallel and non-uniform. The linear stability of this basic solution is analysed numerically by solving the disturbance equations for oblique rolls arbitrarily oriented with respect to the basic velocity field. The onset conditions of thermal instability are governed by the Rayleigh number associated with the prescribed wall heat flux at the lower boundary, by the horizontal Rayleigh number associated with the imposed temperature gradient on the upper open boundary, and by the Gebhart number associated with the effect of viscous dissipation. The critical value of the Rayleigh number for the onset of the thermal instability is evaluated as a function of the horizontal Rayleigh number and of the Gebhart number. It is shown that the longitudinal rolls, having axis parallel to the basic velocity, are the most unstable in all the cases examined. Moreover, the imposed horizontal temperature gradient tends to stabilise the basic flow, while the viscous dissipation turns out to have a destabilising effect.     

Lie-group method of solution for steady two-dimensional boundary-layer stagnation-point flow towards a heated stretching sheet placed in a porous medium

The boundary-layer equations for two-dimensional steady flow of an incompressible, viscous fluid near a stagnation point at a heated stretching sheet placed in a porous medium are considered. We apply Lie-group method for determining symmetry reductions of partial differential equations. Lie-group method starts out with a general infinitesimal group of transformations under which the given partial differential equations are invariant. The determining equations are a set of linear differential equations, the solution of which gives the transformation function or the infinitesimals of the dependent and independent variables. After the group has been determined, a solution to the given partial differential equations may be found from the invariant surface condition such that its solution leads to similarity variables that reduce the number of independent variables of the system. The effect of the velocity parameter λ, which is the ratio of the external free stream velocity to the stretching surface velocity, permeability parameter of the porous medium k ₁, and Prandtl number Pr on the horizontal and transverse velocities, temperature profiles, surface heat flux and the wall shear stress, has been studied.     

Simultaneous heat and mass transfer by natural convection from a plate embedded in a porous medium with thermal dispersion effects

The problem of steady, laminar, simultaneous heat and mass transfer by natural convection flow over a vertical permeable plate embedded in a uniform porous medium in the presence of inertia and thermal dispersion effects is investigated for the case of linear variations of both the wall temperature and concentration with the distance along the plate. Appropriate transformations are employed to transform the governing differential equations to a non-similar form. The transformed equations are solved numerically by an efficient implicit, iterative, finite-difference scheme. The obtained results are checked against previously published work on special cases of the problem and are found to be in good agreement. A parametric study illustrating the influence of the porous medium effects, heat generation or absorption, wall suction or injection, concentration to thermal buoyancy ratio, thermal dispersion parameter, and the Schmidt number on the fluid velocity, temperature and concentration as well as the skin-friction coefficient and the Nusselt and Sherwood numbers is conducted. The results of this parametric study are shown graphically and the physical aspects of the problem are highlighted and discussed.     

Forced convection from an isolated heat source in a channel with porous medium

A numerical study is made of flow and heat transfer characteristics of forced convection in a channel that is partially filled with a porous medium. The flow geometry models convective cooling process in a printed circuit board system with a porous insert.The channel walls are assumed to be adiabatic. Comprehensive numerical solutions are acquired to the governing Navier-Stokes equations, using the Brinkman-Forchheimer-extended Darcy model for the regions of porous media. Details of flow and thermal fields are examined over ranges of the principal parameters; i.e., the Reynolds number Re, the Darcy number Da (≡K/H²), the thickness of the porous substrate S, and the ratio of thermal conductivities R_k (≡k_eff/k). Two types of the location of the porous block are considered. The maximum temperature at the heat source and the associated pressure drop are presented for varying Re, Da, S, and R_k. The results illustrate that as S increases or Da decreases, the fluid flow rate increases. Also, as R_k increases for fixed Da, heat transfer rates are augmented. Explicit influences of Re on the flow and heat transport characteristics are also scrutinized. Assessment is made of the utility of using a porous insert by cross comparing the gain in heat transport against the increase in pressure drop.     

Thermal analysis in swirl motion of Maxwell nanofluid over a rotating circular cylinder

In this paper, the mechanism of thermal energy transport in swirling flow of the Maxwell nanofluid induced by a stretchable rotating cylinder is studied. The rotation of the cylinder is kept constant in order to avoid the induced axially secondary flow. Further, the novel features of heat generation/absorption, thermal radiation, and Joule heating are studied to control the rate of heat transfer. The effects of Brownian and thermophoretic forces exerted by the Maxwell nanofluid to the transport of thermal energy are investigated by utilizing an effective model for the nanofluid proposed by Buongiorno. The whole physical problem of fluid flow and thermal energy transport is modelled in the form of partial differential equations(PDEs) and transformed into nonlinear ordinary differential equations(ODEs) with the help of the suitable flow ansatz.Numerically acquired results through the technique bvp4c are reported graphically with physical explanation. Graphical analysis reveals that there is higher transport of heat energy in the Maxwell nanoliquid for a constant wall temperature(CWT) as compared with the prescribed surface temperature(PST). Both thermophoretic and Brownian forces enhance the thermal energy transport in the flowing Maxwell nanofluid. Moreover, the temperature distribution increases with increasing values of the radiation parameter and the Eckert number. It is also noted that an increase in Reynolds number reduces the penetration depth, and as a result the flow and transport of energy occur only near the surface of the cylinder.     

Numerical Simulation of Turbulent Flow and Heat Transfer in a Three-Dimensional Channel Coupled with Flow Through Porous Structures

This study investigates numerically the turbulent flow and heat transfer characteristics of a T-junction mixing, where a porous media flow is vertically discharged in a 3D fully developed channel flow. The fluid equations for the porous medium are solved in a pore structure level using an Speziale, Sarkar and Gatski turbulence model and validated with open literature data. Overall, two types of porous structures, consisted of square pores, are investigated over a wide range of Reynolds numbers: an in-line and a staggered pore structure arrangement. The flow patterns, including the reattachment length in the channel, the velocity field inside the porous medium as well as the fluctuation velocity at the interface, are found to be strongly affected by the velocity ratio between the transversely interacting flow streams. In addition, the heat transfer examination of the flow domain reveals that the temperature distribution in the porous structure is more uniform for the staggered array. The local heat transfer distributions inside the porous structure are also studied, and the general heat transfer rates are correlated in terms of area-averaged Nusselt number accounting for the effects of Reynolds number, velocity ratio as well as the geometrical arrangement of the porous structures.