Analytical Solution for Forced Convection in a Semi-Circular Channel Filled with a Porous Medium

Fully developed laminar forced convection inside a semi-circular channel filled with a Brinkman-Darcy porous medium is studied. Analytical solutions for flow and constant flux heat transfer are found using a mixture of Cartesian and cylindrical coordinates. The problem depends on a parameter s, which is proportional to the inverse square of the Darcy number. Velocity boundary layers exist when s is large. Both friction factor-Reynolds number product and Nusselt number are determined. Closed form expressions for the clear fluid () limit are found. Rare analytical solutions not only describe fundamental channel flows, but also serve as a check for more complicated numerical solutions.     

Numerical Study of Natural Convection Heat Transfer in an Inclined Porous Cavity with Time-Periodic Boundary Conditions

Kalabin et al. (Numer. Heat Transfer A 47, 621-631, 2005) studied the unsteady natural convection for the sinusoidal oscillating wall temperature on one side wall and constant average temperature on the opposing side wall. The present article is on the unsteady natural convective heat transfer in an inclined porous cavity with similar temperature boundary conditions as those of Kalabin et al. The inclined angle of the cavity is varied from 0° to 80°. The flow field is modeled with the Brinkman-extended Darcy model. The combined effects of inclination angle of the enclosure and oscillation frequency of wall temperature are studied for Ra* = 10³, Da = 10⁻³, , and Pr=1. Some results are also obtained with the Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model and Darcy’s law and are compared with the present Brinkman-extended Darcy model. The maximal heat transfer rate is attained at the oscillating frequency f = 46.7π and the inclined angle .     

Combined Forced and Free Convective Flow in a Vertical Porous Channel: The Effects of Viscous Dissipation and Pressure Work

Buoyant flow is analysed for a vertical fluid saturated porous layer bounded by an isothermal plane and an isoflux plane in the case of a fully developed flow with a parallel velocity field. The effects of viscous dissipation and pressure work are taken into account in the framework of the Oberbeck–Boussinesq approximation scheme and of the Darcy flow model. Momentum and energy balances are combined in a dimensionless nonlinear ordinary differential equation solved numerically by a Runge–Kutta method. Both cases of upward pressure force (upward driven flows) and of downward pressure force (downward driven flows) are examined. The thermal behaviour for upward driven flows and downward driven flows is quite different. For upward driven flows, the combined effects of viscous dissipation and pressure work may produce a net cooling of the fluid even in the case of a positive heat input from the isoflux wall. For downward driven flows, viscous dissipation and pressure work yield a net heating of the fluid. A general reflection on the roles played by the effects of viscous dissipation and pressure work with respect to the Oberbeck–Boussinesq approximation is proposed.     

A Numerical Investigation on the Laminar Boundary Flow Layer with Transpiration Cooling

Heat transfer characteristics in the laminar boundary layer with transpiration cooling function are numerically analyzed by an integral method. The effects of coolant injection ratio, and the Re and Pr numbers of the exterior hot flow on the temperature at porous plate surface are discussed. The numerical results and discussions indicate that the surface temperature falls with an increase of coolant injection ratio, the temperature distribution on the surface is not uniform, and the effects of the Re number under lower Pr number condition are distinctly different to that under the higher Pr number condition.     

Effects of Temperature-Dependent Viscosity on Forced Convection Inside a Porous Medium

Considering the exponential viscosity–temperature relation, effect of temperature-dependent viscosity on forced convection of a liquid through a porous medium, bounded by isoflux parallel plates, is investigated numerically based on the general model of momentum transfer. Local effects of viscosity variation on the distribution of velocity and temperature are analyzed. Moreover, global aspects of the problem are investigated where corrections are proposed for total pressure drop and the fully developed Nusselt number, in the form of out/in viscosity ratio. Results are obtained over a wide range of permeabilities from clear (of solid material) fluid to very low permeability, where for constant properties one expects a nearly slug flow.     

Forced Convection with Laminar Pulsating Counterflow in a Saturated Porous Circular Tube

An analytical solution is obtained for forced convection in a circular tube occupied by a core–sheath-layered saturated porous medium with counterflow produced by pulsating pressure gradients. The case of the constant heat-flux boundary conditions is considered, and the Brinkman model is employed for the porous medium. A perturbation approach is used to obtain analytical expressions for the velocity, temperature distribution, and transient Nusselt number for convection produced by an applied pressure gradient that fluctuates with small amplitude harmonically in time about a non-zero mean. It is shown that the fluctuating part of the Nusselt number alters in magnitude and phase as the dimensionless frequency increases. The magnitude increases from zero, goes through a peak, and then decreases to zero. The height of the peak depends on the values of various parameters. The phase (relative to that of the steady component) decreases from π/2 to − π/2 as the frequency increases.     

Friction and Heat Transfer in a Laminar Separated Flow behind a Rectangular Step with Porous Injection or Suction

Results of a numerical study of a laminar separated flow behind a rectangular step on a porous surface with uniform injection or suction are described. Two cases are considered: an unconfined flow past a step and flow evolution in a confined channel (duct). It is shown that mass transfer on the surface causes strong changes in the flow structure and substantially affects the position of the reattachment point, as well as friction and heat transfer. More intense injection leads first to an increase in the separation-zone length and then to its rapid vanishing due to boundary-layer displacement. Vice versa, suction at high Reynolds numbers Re _s > 100 reduces the separation-zone length. The duct flow has a complicated distribution of friction and heat-transfer coefficients along the porous surface owing to the coupled effect of the transverse flow of the substance and changes in the main flow velocity due to mass transfer. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 18–28, January–February, 2006.     

Reply to Comments on “Non-Darcian Forced Convection Flow of Viscous Dissipating Fluid over a Flat Plate Embedded in a Porous Medium”

In this note, we reply to the comments by Rees and Magyari (2007) on our article (Aydin and Kaya 2007). They mainly stated that the thermal boundary conditions we defined at the edge of the boundary layer were incompatible with the energy equation. This is questionable and therefore we will discuss it below. They disclosed that our results were in error. However, this is quite misleading. Scientifically, they cannot reach such a conclusion without comparing our results with what they thought to be correct. In fact, this misleading and unproven statement will be shown not to be correct in the following.     

Onset of Convection in a Porous Rectangular Channel with External Heat Transfer to Upper and Lower Fluid Environments

The conditions for the onset of convection in a horizontal rectangular channel filled with a fluid saturated porous medium are studied. The vertical sidewalls are assumed to be impermeable and adiabatic. The horizontal upper and lower boundary walls are considered as impermeable and subject to external heat transfer, modelled through a third-kind boundary condition on the temperature field. The external fluid environments above and below the channel, kept at different temperatures, provide the heating-from-below mechanism which may lead to the onset of the thermal instability in the porous medium. The linear response of the fluid saturated porous channel, in a basic motionless state, is tested with respect to three-dimensional normal mode disturbances of the temperature field and of the pressure field. The linearised disturbance equations are solved analytically leading to an implicit-form expression of the neutral stability condition, formulated as a functional relationship between the Darcy?CRayleigh number and the continuous longitudinal wave number of the normal modes, for any assigned aspect ratio of the cross-section and for any given Biot number. The analysis of the neutral stability is carried out. The analysis is extended to the case of a channel with a finite length in the longitudinal direction, and with adiabatic and impermeable capped ends.     

Analytical Study of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer during Forced Convection in a Composite Channel Partly Filled with a Brinkman–Forchheimer Porous Medium

In this paper, the problem of fully developed forced convection in a parallel-plate channel partly filled with a homogeneous porous material is considered. The porous material is attached to the walls of the channel, while the center of the channel is occupied by clear fluid. The flow in the porous material is described by a nonlinear Brinkman–Forchheimer-extended Darcy equation. Utilizing the boundary-layer approach, analytical solutions for the flow velocity, the temperature distribution, as well as for the Nusselt number are obtained. Dependence of the Nusselt number on several parameters of the problem is extensively investigated.     

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.     

Thermally Developing Forced Convection in a Porous Medium Occupied by a Rarefied Gas: Parallel Plate Channel or Circular Tube with Walls at Constant Heat Flux

An adaptation of the classical Graetz methodology is applied to investigate the thermal development of forced convection in a parallel plate channel or a circular tube filled by a porous medium saturated by a rarefied gas, with walls held at constant heat flux. The Brinkman model is employed. The analysis leads to expressions for the local Nusselt number Nu as functions of the dimensionless longitudinal coordinate and the Darcy number. It is found that an increase in the velocity slip coefficient generally increases Nu by a small or moderate amount (but the circular tube at large Darcy number is an exception) while an increase in the temperature slip coefficient reduces Nu by a more substantial amount. These trends are uniform as the longitudinal coordinate varies.     

Buoyant Flow with Viscous Heating in a Vertical Circular Duct Filled with a Porous Medium

Combined, forced, and free flow in a vertical circular duct filled with a porous medium is investigated according to the Darcy–Boussinesq model. The effect of viscous dissipation is taken into account. It is shown that a thermal boundary condition compatible with fully developed and axisymmetric flow is either a linearly varying wall temperature in the axial direction or, only in the case of uniform velocity profile, an axial linear-exponential wall temperature change. The case of a linearly varying wall temperature corresponds to a uniform wall heat flux and includes the uniform wall temperature as a special case. A general analytical solution procedure is performed, by expressing the seepage velocity profile as a power series with respect to the radial coordinate. It is shown that, for a fixed thermal boundary condition, i.e., for a prescribed slope of the wall temperature, and for a given flow rate, there exist two solutions of the governing balance equations provided that the flow rate is lower than a maximum value. When the maximum value is reached, the dual solutions coincide. When the flow rate is higher than its maximum, no axisymmetric solutions exist. E. Magyari is on leave from the Institute of Building Technology, ETH—Zürich.     

Mixed Convection Boundary-Layer Flow in a Porous Medium Filled with Water Close to its Maximum Density

The steady mixed convection boundary-layer flow over a vertical impermeable surface in a porous medium saturated with water close to its maximum density is considered for uniform wall temperature and outer flow. The problem can be reduced to similarity form and the resulting equations are examined in terms of a mixed convection parameter λ and a parameter δ which measures the difference between the ambient temperature and the temperature at the maximum density. Both assisting (λ > 0) and opposing flows (λ < 0) are considered. A value δ₀ is found for which there are dual solutions for a range λ_c < λ < 0 of λ (the value of λ_c dependent on δ) and single solutions for all λ ≥ 0. Another value of δ₁ of δ, with δ₁ > δ₀, is found for which there are dual solutions for a range 0 < λ < λ_c of positive values of λ, with solutions for all λ≤ 0. There is also a range δ₀ <  δ < δ₁ where there are solutions only for a finite range of λ, with critical points at both positive and negative values of λ, thus putting a finite limit on the range of existence of solutions.     

Forced Convection with Laminar Pulsating Flow in a Saturated Porous Channel or Tube

A perturbation approach is used to obtain analytical expressions for the velocity, temperature distribution, and transient Nusselt number for the problem of forced convection, in a parallel-plates channel or a circular tube occupied by a saturated porous medium modeled by the Brinkman equation, produced by an applied pressure gradient that fluctuates with small amplitude harmonically in time about a non-zero mean. It is shown that the fluctuating part of this Nusselt number alters in magnitude and phase as the dimensionless frequency increases. The magnitude increases from zero, goes through a peak, and then decreases to zero. The height of the peak decreases as the modified Prandtl number increases. The phase (relative to that of the steady component) decreases from π/2 to − π/2. The height of the peak at first increases, goes through a maximum, and then decreases as the Darcy number decreases.     

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.     

Fully Developed Mixed Convection Flow Between Inclined Parallel Plates Filled with a Porous Medium

A fully developed mixed convection flow between inclined parallel flat plates filled with a porous medium is considered through which there is a constant flow rate and with heat being supplied to the fluid by the same uniform heat flux on each plate. The equations governing this flow are made non-dimensional and are seen to depend on two dimensionless parameters, a mixed convection parameter λ and the Péclet number Pe, as well as the inclination γ of the plates to the horizontal. The velocity and temperature profiles are obtained in terms of λ, Pe and γ when the channel is inclined in an upwards direction as well as for horizontal channels. The limiting cases of small and large λ and small Pe are considered with boundary-layer structures being seen to develop on the plates for large values of λ.     

Mixed Convection Boundary-Layer Flow Near the Stagnation Point on a Vertical Surface in a Porous Medium: Brinkman Model with Slip

The steady boundary-layer flow near the stagnation point on an impermeable vertical surface with slip that is embedded in a fluid-saturated porous medium is investigated. Using appropriate similarity variables, the governing system of partial differential equations is transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations. This system is then solved numerically. The features of the flow and the heat transfer characteristics for different values of the governing parameters, namely, the Darcy–Brinkman, Γ, mixed convection, λ, and slip, γ, parameters, are analysed and discussed in detail for the cases of assisting and opposing flows. It is found that dual solutions exist for assisting flows, as well as those usually reported in the literature for opposing flows. A stability analysis of the steady flow solutions encountered for different values of the mixed convection parameter λ is performed using a linear temporal stability analysis. This analysis reveals that for γ  =  0 (slip absent) and Γ  =  1 the lower solution branch is unstable while the upper solution branch is stable.     

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.     

Modeling of Heat and Mass Transfer in a Fractured Porous Medium

While fractured formations are possibly the most important contributors to the production of oil worldwide, modeling fractured formations with rigorous treatments has eluded reservoir engineers in the past. To date, one of the most commonly used fractured reservoir models remains the one that was suggested by Warren and Root nearly four decades ago. In this paper, a new model for fractures embedded in a porous medium is proposed. The model considers the Navier-Stokes equation in the fracture (channel flow) while using the Brinkman equation for the porous medium. Unlike the previous approach, the proposed model does not require the assumption of orthogonality of the fractures (sugar cube assumption) nor does it impose incorrect boundary conditions for the interface between the fracture and the porous medium. Also, the transfer coefficient between the fracture and matrix interface does not need to be specified, unlike the cases for which Darcy's law is used. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of the approach, a two-dimensional model of a fractured formation is developed and numerical simulation runs conducted.

The proposed model is derived through a series of finite element modeling runs for various cases using the Navier-Stokes equation in the channel while maintaining the Brinkman equation in the porous medium. Various cases studied include different fracture orientations, fracture frequencies, and thermal and solutal constraints. The usefulness of the proposed model in modeling complex formations is discussed. Finally, a series of numerical runs also provided validity of the proposed model for the cases in which thermal and solutal effects are important. Such a study of double diffusive phenomena, coupled with forced convection, in the context of fractured formations has not been reported before.