Numerical Study of Heat Transfer in a Rectangular Channel with Porous Covering Obstacles

A numerical study is performed to analyze steady laminar forced convection in a channel in which discrete heat sources covered with porous material are placed on the bottom wall. Hydrodynamic and heat transfer results are reported. The flow in the porous medium is modeled using the Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model. A computer program based on control volume method with appropriate averaging for diffusion coefficient is developed to solve the coupling between solid, fluid, and porous region. The effects of parameters such as Reynolds number, Prandtl number, inertia coefficient, and thermal conductivity ratio are considered. The results reveal that the porous cover with high thermal conductivity enhances the heat transfer from the solid blocks significantly and decreases the maximum temperature on the heated solid blocks. The mean Nusselt number increases with increase of Reynolds number and Prandtl number, and decrease of inertia coefficient. The pressure drop along the channel increases rapidly with the increase of Reynolds number.     

Modelling of the free surface with heat and mass transfer considerations on a liquid filling a porous slab heated from its sides

The position of the free surface is calculated numerically for a porous slab which is partly filled with a liquid and differentially heated from its sides. A coordinate transformation is used to transform the original problem from a physical coordinate system to a non‐orthogonal system where the free surface becomes a fixed straightline. The transformed problem is then solved using a finite difference method. Results are obtained for Rayleigh numbers up to 1000. The Nusselt numbers increase slightly with medium Rayleigh numbers (convection‐dominated region) as expected. Since at low Ra the conduction is dominant and at high Ra radiation is dominant. Hadizadeh and Tien (Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 2004; 17 (6):799–804) studied the forced convection on the surface of porous layer. In that paper they dealt with in detail the boundary regime of liquid in the channel and modelled the flow and heat transfer. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental validation of heat transfer models for flow through a porous medium

Unsteady heat transfer in a fluid saturated porous medium contained in a tube is studied. The porous medium is a bed of uniform diameter spheres, made of glass or steel, while the flowing fluid is water. The flow field is time invariant in the simulation as well as experiments. Step response of the bed when the temperature of the incoming water is suddenly increased, and oscillatory response when hot and cold fluids alternately flow through the tube are studied. Heat transfer models are based on thermal equilibrium between the fluid and the solid phase (one-equation) and thermal non-equilibrium (two-equation) between the two phases. The predictions of these models are compared against experiments conducted in a laboratory-scale apparatus. The comparison is in terms of time evolution of temperature profiles at selected points in the bed, as well as global properties of the temperature distribution such as attenuation and phase lag with respect to the boundary perturbations. The range of Peclet numbers considered in the study is 500–4,000, for which the flow can be considered laminar. Results show that the predictions of the two-equation model are uniformly superior to the one-equation model over the range of Peclet numbers studied. The differences among the three approaches diminish when the thermophysical properties of the solid and fluid phases are close to one another. The differences also reduce in the step response test as steady state is approached.     

Flow over rectangular porous block in a fixed width channel: influence of porosity and aspect ratio

Flow over a rectangular porous block placed in a fixed width channel is considered and the influence of block aspect ratio on the heat transfer rate from the block is examined. A non-porous solid block is also accommodated to compare the effect of porosity on the flow field and heat transfer characteristics. Aspect ratio and the porosity of the block are varied in the simulations. A numerical scheme employing a control volume approach is considered when predicting the flow and temperature fields. The Reynolds number is selected to yield the mix convection situation in the flow field. It is found that the aspect ratio significantly influences Nu and Gr numbers, in which case increasing the aspect ratio enhances Nu while lowering Gr. Increasing porosity improves the heat transfer rates from the porous block, provided that at high aspect ratios, this situation ceases due to blockage effect of the body in the channel.     

Steady and Unsteady Heat Transfer in a Channel Partially Filled with Porous Media Under Thermal Non-Equilibrium Condition

Steady and pulsatile flow and heat transfer in a channel lined with two porous layers subject to constant wall heat flux under local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) condition is numerically investigated. To do this, a physical boundary condition in the interface of porous media and clear region of the channel is derived. The objective of this work is, first, to assess the effects of local solid-to-fluid heat transfer (a criterion indicating on departure from local thermal equilibrium (LTE) condition), solid-to-fluid thermal conductivity ratio and porous layer thickness on convective heat transfer in steady condition inside a channel partially filled with porous media; second, to examine the impact of pulsatile flow on heat transfer in the same channel. The effects of LTNE condition and thermal conductivity ratio in pulsatile flow are also briefly discussed. It is observed that Nusselt number inside the channel increases when the problem is tending to LTE condition. Therefore, careless consideration of LTE may lead to overestimation of heat transfer. Solid-to-fluid thermal conductivity ratio is also shown to enhance heat transfer in constant porous media thickness. It is also revealed that an increase in the amplitude of pulsation may result in enhancement of Nusselt number, while Nusselt number has a minimum in a certain frequency for each value of amplitude.     

Fully Developed Forced Convection Heat Transfer in a Porous Channel with Asymmetric Heat Flux Boundary Conditions

An analytical study is performed on steady, laminar, and fully developed forced convection heat transfer in a parallel plate channel with asymmetric uniform heat flux boundary conditions. The channel is filled with a saturated porous medium, and the lower and upper walls are subjected to different uniform heat fluxes. The dimensionless form of the Darcy–Brinkman momentum equation is solved to determine the dimensionless velocity profile, while the dimensionless energy equation is solved to obtain temperature profile for a hydrodynamically and thermally fully developed flow in the channel. Nusselt numbers for the lower and upper walls and an overall Nusselt number are defined. Analytical expressions for determination of the Nusselt numbers and critical heat flux ratio, at which singularities are observed for individual Nusselt numbers, are obtained. Based on the values of critical heat flux ratio and Darcy number, a diagram is provided to determine the direction of heat transfer between the lower or upper walls while the fluid is flowing in the channel.     

Conjugate model for heat and mass transfer of porous wall in the high temperature gas flow

Heat and mass transfer of a porous permeable wall in a high temperature gas dynamical flow is considered. Numerical simulation is conducted on the ground of the conjugate mathematical model which includes filtration and heat transfer equations in a porous body and boundary layer equations on its surface. Such an approach enables one to take into account complex interaction between heat and mass transfer in the gasdynamical flow and in the structure subjected to this flow. The main attention is given to the impact of the intraporous heat transfer intensity on the transpiration cooling efficiency. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (19889209) and Russian Foundation for Basic Research (97-02-16943)     

Thermodynamically Consistent Limiting Forced Convection Heat Transfer in a Asymmetrically Heated Porous Channel: An Analytical Study

Fluid transport and the associated heat transfer through porous media is of immense importance because of its numerous practical applications. In view of the widespread applications of porous media flow, the present study attempts to investigate the forced convective heat transfer in the limiting condition for the flow through porous channel. There could be many areas, where heat transfer through porous channel attain some limiting conditions, thus, the analysis of limiting convective heat transfer is far reaching. The primary aim of the present study is focused on the limiting forced convection analysis considering the flow of Newtonian fluid between two asymmetrically heated parallel plates filled with saturated porous media. Utilizing a few assumptions, which are usually employed in the literature, an analytical methodology is executed to obtain the closed-form expression of the temperature profile, and in the following the expression of the limiting Nusselt numbers. The parametric variations of the temperature profile and the Nusselt numbers in different cases have been shown highlighting the influential role of different performance indexing parameters, like Darcy number, porosity of the media, and Brinkman number of forced convective heat transfer in porous channel. In doing so, the underlying physics of the transport characteristics of heat has been delineated in a comprehensive way. Moreover, a discussion has been made regarding an important feature like the onset of point of singularity as appeared on the variation of the Nusselt number from the consideration of energy balance in the flow field, and in view of second law of thermodynamics.     

Lattice Boltzmann modeling of pore‐scale fluid flow through idealized porous media

In order to capture the hydro‐mechanical impacts on the solid skeleton imposed by the fluid flowing through porous media at the pore‐scale, the flow in the pore space has to be modeled at a resolution finer than the pores, and the no‐slip condition needs to be enforced at the grain–fluid interface. In this paper, the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), a mesoscopic Navier–Stokes solver, is shown to be an appropriate pore‐scale fluid flow model. The accuracy and lattice sensitivity of LBM as a fluid dynamics solver is demonstrated in the Poiseuille channel flow problem (2‐D) and duct flow problem (3‐D). Well‐studied problems of fluid creeping through idealized 2‐D and 3‐D porous media (J. Fluid Mech. 1959; 5 (2):317–328, J. Fluid Mech. 1982; 115 :13–26, Int. J. Multiphase Flow 1982; 8 (4):343–360, Phys. Fluids A 1989; 1 (1):38–46, Int. J. Numer. Anal. Meth. Geomech. 1999; 23 :881–904, Int. J. Numer. Anal. Meth. Geomech. 2010; DOI: 10.1002/nag.898, Int. J. Multiphase Flow 1982; 8 (3):193–206) are then simulated using LBM to measure the friction coefficient for various pore throats. The simulation results agree well with the data reported in the literature. The lattice sensitivity of the frictional coefficient is also investigated. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparative evaluation of three heat transfer enhancement strategies in a grooved channel

 Results of a comparative evaluation of three heat transfer enhancement strategies for forced convection cooling of a parallel plate channel populated with heated blocks, representing electronic components mounted on printed circuit boards, are reported. Heat transfer in the reference geometry, the asymmetrically heated parallel plate channel, is compared with that for the basic grooved channel, and the same geometry enhanced by cylinders and vanes placed above the downstream edge of each heated block. In addition to conventional heat transfer and pressure drop measurements, holographic interferometry combined with high-speed cinematography was used to visualize the unsteady temperature fields in the self-sustained oscillatory flow. The locations of increased heat transfer within one channel periodicity depend on the enhancement technique applied, and were identified by analyzing the unsteady temperature distributions visualized by holographic interferometry. This approach allowed gaining insight into the mechanisms responsible for heat transfer enhancement. Experiments were conducted at moderate flow velocities in the laminar, transitional and turbulent flow regimes. Reynolds numbers were varied in the range Re = 200–6500, corresponding to flow velocities from 0.076 to 2.36 m/s. Flow oscillations were first observed between Re = 1050 and 1320 for the basic grooved channel, and around Re = 350 and 450 for the grooved channels equipped with cylinders and vanes, respectively. At Reynolds numbers above the onset of oscillations and in the transitional flow regime, heat transfer rates in the investigated grooved channels exceeded the performance of the reference geometry, the asymmetrically heated parallel plate channel. Heat transfer in the grooved channels enhanced with cylinders and vanes showed an increase by a factor of 1.2–1.8 and 1.5–3.5, respectively, when compared to data obtained for the basic grooved channel; however, the accompanying pressure drop penalties also increased significantly. Received on 5 April 2001     

Forced Convection Heat Transfer of Nanofluids in a Porous Channel

This article is concerned with the effects of flow and migration of nanoparticles on heat transfer in a straight channel occupied with a porous medium. Investigation of force convective heat transfer of nanofluids in a porous channel has not been considered completely in the literature and this challenge is generally considered to be an open research topic that may require more study. The fully developed flow and steady Darcy?CBrinkman?CForchheimer equation is employed in porous channel. The thermal equilibrium model is assumed between nanofluid and solid phases. It is assumed that the nanoparticles are distributed non-uniformly inside the channel. As a result the volume fraction distribution equation is also coupled with governing equations. The effects of parameters such as Lewis number, Schmidt number, Brownian diffusion, and thermophoresis on the heat transfer are completely studied. The results show that the local Nusselt number is decreased when the Lewis number is increased. It is observed that as the Schmidt number is increased, the wall temperature gradient is decreased and as a consequence the local Nusselt number is decreased. The effects of Lewis number, Schmidt number, and modified diffusivity ratio on the volume fraction distribution are also studied and discussed.     

An analytical wall-function for recirculating and impinging turbulent heat transfer

The performance of the analytical wall-function (AWF) of Craft et al. [Craft, T.J., Gerasimov, A.V., Iacovides, H., Launder, B.E., 2002, Progress in the generalisation of wall-function treatments. Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 23, 148–160.] is improved for predicting turbulent heat transfer in recirculating and impinging flows. Since constant parameters of the eddy viscosity formula were used to derive the AWF, the prediction accuracy of the original AWF tends to deteriorate in complex flows where those parameters need changing according to the local turbulence. To overcome such shortcomings, the present study introduces a functional behaviour on the strain parameter into the coefficient of the eddy viscosity of the AWF. The presently modified version of the AWF is validated in turbulent heat transfer of pipe flows, channel flows, back-step flows, pipe flows with abrupt expansion and plane impinging slot jets. The results confirm that the present modification successfully improves the performance of the original AWF for all the flows and heat transfer tested.     

Effect of temperature gradient within a solid particle on the rotation and oscillation modes in solid-dispersed two-phase flows

Liquid–solid two-phase flow with heat transfer is simulated, and the effect of temperature gradient within a solid particle on the particle behaviour and heat transfer is studied. The interaction between fluid and particles is considered with our original immersed solid approach on a rectangular grid system. The local heat flux at the fluid–solid interface is described with an anisotropic heat conductivity matrix, and the governing equation of temperature is time-updated with an implicit treatment for the diffusion term. The method is applied to a 2-D natural convection flow of a relatively low Rayleigh number including multiple particles. Heat transfer and particle behaviours are studied for different solid heat conductivities (ratio to the fluid conductivity ranging between 10⁻³ and 10³) and solid volume fractions. Under a condition of relatively low heat conductivity ratio, the particles show a simple circulating flow. By increasing the heat conductivity ratio, a transition of the particulate flow is observed to oscillation mode around the domain centre due to the buoyancy force as a restitution force. The oscillation period is found to vary with the heat conductivity ratio, and it is related to the time scales for the heat transfer via fluid and solid.     

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.     

Nucleate boiling of FC-87/FC-72 zeotropic mixtures on a horizontal copper disc

This paper presents nucleate boiling experimental results, at atmospheric pressure, for heat fluxes q ≤ 40 kW/m², for FC-87/FC-72 binary mixtures in molar fractions of 0/100, 25/75, 50/50, 75/25, 85/15 and 100/0, at saturation temperatures for pure fluids and bubble points for mixtures. The test section was an upward facing copper disc of 12 mm diameter and 1 mm thickness. The experimental heat transfer coefficient was compared with the correlations of Rohsenow (1952), as reported by Rohsenow et al. (Handbook of heat transfer, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1998), Stephan and Abdelsalam (Int J Heat Mass Transfer 23;73–78, 1978) and Cooper (Int Chem Eng Symp Ser 86:785–792, 1984) for pure fluids and the semi-empirical models of Stephan and Körner (Chem Ing Tech Jahrg 7:409–484, 1969), Thome (J Heat Transfer 104:474–478, 1982), Fujita et al. (1996), as reported by Rohsenow et al. (Handbook of heat transfer, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1998), Fujita and Tsutsui (Int J Heat Mass Transfer 37(1):291–302, 1994) and Calus and Leonidopoulos (Int J Heat Mass Transfer 17:249–256, 1973) for mixtures.     

Numerical Simulation of Forced Convective Heat Transfer Past a Square Diamond-Shaped Porous Cylinder

Fluid flow and heat transfer around and through a porous cylinder is an important issue in engineering applications. In this paper a numerical study is carried out for simulating the fluid flow and forced convection heat transfer around and through a square diamond-shaped porous cylinder. The flow is two-dimensional, steady, and laminar. Conservation laws of mass, momentum, and heat transport equations are applied in the clear region and Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model for simulating the flow in the porous medium has been used. Equations with the relevant boundary conditions are numerically solved using a finite volume approach. In this study, Reynolds and Darcy numbers are varied within the ranges of $1<Re<45$ and $10^{-6}<Da<10^{- 2}$ , respectively. The porosity $(\varepsilon )$ is 0.5. This paper presents the effect of Reynolds and Darcy numbers on the flow structure and heat transfer characteristics. Finally, these parameters are compared among solid and porous cylinder. It was found that the drag coefficient decreases and flow separation from the cylinder is delayed with increasing Darcy number. Also the size of the thermal plume decreases by decreasing Darcy number.     

An experimental study of steam injection into a uniform water flow through porous media

An experimental study of steam injection into a porous media was carried out in a 2-dimensional plane porous channel. The steam was injected into a uniform downward water flow in a vertically aligned porous channel. The steam-water interface was carefully observed to understand the underlying physics. Two steam injection rate bounds were found for a given water flow rate and water subcooling. The upper bound is the steam flow rate at which the steam zone grows without limit and the lower bound is the steam flow rate at which a steam zone is just initiated. The bounds were determined experimentally for a porous channel with different permeabilities and thermal conductivities. For large particle size, chaotic oscillation of steam water interface was observed. The oscillation is believed to enhance heat and momentum transfer mechanisms. The steam zone size and shape were measured to evaluate heat transfer characteristics. The average Nusselt number is presented in terms of steam and water Reynolds numbers and the Stefan number.     

Influence of heat transfer and fluid flow on crack growth in multilayered porous/dense materials using XFEM: Application to Solid Oxide Fuel Cell like material design

An advanced numerical model is developed to investigate the influence of heat transfer and fluid flow on crack propagation in multi-layered porous materials. The fluid flow, governed by the Navier–Stokes and Darcy’s law, is discretized with the nonconforming Crouzeix–Raviart (CR) finite element method. A combination of Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) and Multi-Point Flux Approximation (MPFA) methods is used to solve the advection–diffusion heat transfer equation in the flow channel and in the fluid phase within the porous material. The crack is assumed to affect only the heat diffusion within the porous layer, therefore a time splitting technique is used to solve the heat transfer in the fluid and the solid phases separately. Thus, within the porous material, the crack induces a discontinuity of the temperature at the crack surfaces and a singularity of the flux at the crack tip. Conduction in the solid phase is solved using the eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) to better handle the discontinuities and singularities caused by the cracks. The XFEM is also used to solve the thermo-mechanical problem and to track the crack propagation. The multi-physics model is implemented then validated for the transient regime, this necessitated a post processing treatment in which, the stress intensity factors (SIF) are computed for each time step. The SIFs are then used in the crack propagation criterion and the crack orientation angle. The methodology seems to be robust accurate and the computational cost is reduced thanks to the XFEM.     

Laminar flow and heat transfer in confined channel flow past square bars arranged side by side

A numerical investigation was conducted to analyze the unsteady laminar flow field and heat transfer characteristics in a plane channel with two square bars mounted side by side to the approaching flow. A finite volume technique is applied with a fine grid and time resolution. The transverse separation distance between the bars (G/d) is varied from 0 to 5, whereas the bar height to channel height is d/H=1/8, and the channel length is L=5H. Different flow regimes develop in the channel due the interaction between the two mounted square bars, steady flow, flow with vortex shedding synchronization either in phase or in anti-phase, or biased flow with low frequency modulation of vortex shedding are found. Results show that the pressure drop increase and heat transfer enhancement are strongly dependent of the transverse separation distance of the bars and the channel Reynolds number.     

The Use of Porous Fins for Heat Transfer Augmentation in Parallel-Plate Channels

In this study, a steady, fully developed laminar forced convection heat augmentation via porous fins in isothermal parallel-plate duct is numerically investigated. High-thermal conductivity porous fins are attached to the inner walls of two parallel-plate channels to enhance the heat transfer characteristics of the flow under consideration. The Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model is used to model the flow inside the porous fins. This study reports the effect of several operating parameters on the flow hydrodynamics and thermal characteristics. This study demonstrates, mainly, the effects of porous fin thickness, Darcy number, thermal conductivity ratio, Reynolds number, and microscopic inertial coefficient on the thermal performance of the present flow. It is found that the highest Nusselt number is achieved at fully filled porous duct which requires the highest pumping pressure. The results show that using porous fins requires less pumping pressure with comparable high heat augmentation weight against fully filled porous duct. It is found that higher Nusselt numbers are achieved by increasing the microscopic inertial coefficient (A), the Reynolds number (Re), and the thermal conductivity of the porous substrate k ₂. The results show that heat transfer can be enhanced (1) with the use of high thermal conductivity fins, (2) by decreasing the Darcy number, and (3) by increasing microscopic inertial coefficient.