A numerical study of heat transfer of a porous block with the random porosity model in a channel flow

 In this paper, heat transfer of a hot plate with a porous block in a channel flow is numerically investigated. A porous block is simulated as a fin type heat sink. The random/artificial porosity models are used to generate the distribution of porosity. In fact, the distribution of porosity in porous medium is irregular, thus the random porosity model is more realistic than the constant or variable porosity model to describe the phenomena happening in porous medium. Therefore, the distribution of porosity of porous block obeys the random porosity model, and the factors of mean porosity and standard deviation are taken into consideration. The variations of the porosity and the velocity in porous block are no longer smooth. For obtaining more heat transfer rate, the artificial porosity model is proposed. The heat transfer rates of the several cases derived by the artificial porosity model are better than those of the random porosity model. The thermal performance of porous block is larger than that of solid block as the mean porosity is larger than 0.5. Received on 5 March 2001 / Published online: 29 November 2001     

Effect of rotation on ferromagnetic porous convection with a thermal non-equilibrium model

The effect of rotation on the onset of thermal convection in a horizontal layer of ferrofluid saturated Brinkman porous medium is investigated in the presence of a uniform vertical magnetic field using a local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) model. A two-field model for temperature representing the solid and fluid phases separately is used for energy equation. The condition for the occurrence of stationary and oscillatory convection is obtained analytically. The stability of the system has been analyzed when the magnetic and buoyancy forces are acting together as well as in isolation and the similarities as well as differences between the two are highlighted. In contrast to the non-rotating case, it is shown that decrease in the Darcy number Da and an increase in the ratio of effective viscosity to fluid viscosity Λ is to hasten the onset of stationary convection at high rotation rates and a coupling between these two parameters is identified in destabilizing the system. Asymptotic solutions for both small and large values of scaled interphase heat transfer coefficient H _t are presented and compared with those computed numerically. Besides, the influence of magnetic parameters and also parameters representing LTNE on the stability of the system is discussed and the veracity of LTNE model over the LTE model is also analyzed.     

The effect of local thermal non-equilibrium on conduction in porous channels with a uniform heat source

We examine the effect of local thermal non-equilibrium on the steady state heat conduction in a porous layer in the presence of internal heat generation. A uniform source of heat is present in either the fluid or the solid phase. A two-temperature model is assumed and analytical solutions are presented for the resulting steady-state temperature profiles in a uniform porous slab. Attention is then focussed on deriving simple conditions which guarantee local thermal equilibrium.     

Stability analysis of thermosolutal convection in a horizontal porous layer using a thermal non-equilibrium model

A stability analysis is carried out to investigate the onset of thermosolutal convection in a horizontal porous layer when the solid and fluid phases are not in a local thermal equilibrium, and the solubility of the dissolved component depends on temperature. To study how the reaction and thermal non-equilibrium affect the double-diffusive convection, the effects of scaled inter-phase heat transfer coefficient H and dimensionless reaction rate k on thermosolutal convection are discussed . The critical Rayleigh number and the corresponding wave number for the stability and overstability convections are obtained. Specially, asymptotic analysis for both small and large values of H and k is presented, and the corresponding asymptotic solutions are compared with numerical results. At last, a nonlinear stability analysis is presented to study how H and k affect the Nusselt number.     

The convective instability of Maxwell fluid-saturated porous layer using a thermal non-equilibrium model

A linear stability analysis is carried out to study viscoelastic fluid convection in a horizontal porous layer heated from below and cooled from above when the solid and fluid phases are not in a local thermal equilibrium. The modified Darcy–Brinkman–Maxwell model is used for the momentum equation and two-field model is used for the energy equation each representing the solid and fluid phases separately. The conditions for the onset of stationary and oscillatory convection are obtained analytically. Linear stability analysis suggests that, there is a competition between the processes of viscoelasticity and thermal diffusion that causes the first convective instability to be oscillatory rather than stationary. Elasticity is found to destabilize the system. Besides, the effects of Darcy number, thermal non-equilibrium and the Darcy–Prandtl number on the stability of the system are analyzed in detail.     

A new numerical scheme for convective dominated heat transfer in a porous medium with strong temperature gradients

A new numerical scheme, theimplicit correction scheme, has been developed for heat transfer in a porous medium with strong temperature gradients. The scheme includes diffusion, convection and transverse heat transfer processes. By using correction coefficients which are based on transverse heat transfer, the effects of convection enthalpy flow and diffusion are modified. Under suitable limiting conditions, the implicit correction scheme can be reduced to the central-difference, upwind, or power-law scheme. The correction scheme is shown to be especially useful in calculations of the thermal effectiveness of the regenerator in Stirling cycle refrigeration.     

A study of internal heat transfer in nonuniform porous structures

The results of theoretical and experimental studies of heat transfer and pressure drop in nonuniform porous materials and systems are presented. In experiments, measurements were made of the air flow rate, inlet and outlet air pressures, and air and porous sample temperatures. Experimental determination of the heat transfer coefficient in porous structures is associated with certain difficulties. The problem of determining a temperature difference between coolant and porous skeleton is the most complex. As a rule, under laboratory conditions this difference is small and cannot be found with sufficient accuracy. In the present work, the method of determination of the internal heat transfer coefficient is based on solving the inverse unsteady heat transfer problem for porous structures. Using this approach, the heat transfer coefficient is calculated indirectly or on the basis of the porous material temperature variation over time.     

Linear and non-linear double diffusive convection in a rotating porous layer using a thermal non-equilibrium model

Double diffusive convection in a fluid-saturated rotating porous layer heated from below and cooled from above is studied when the fluid and solid phases are not in local thermal equilibrium, using both linear and non-linear stability analyses. The Darcy model that includes the time derivative and Coriolis terms is employed as momentum equation. A two-field model that represents the fluid and solid phase temperature fields separately is used for energy equation. The onset criterion for stationary, oscillatory and finite amplitude convection is derived analytically. It is found that small inter-phase heat transfer coefficient has significant effect on the stability of the system. There is a competition between the processes of thermal and solute diffusions that causes the convection to set in through either oscillatory or finite amplitude mode rather than stationary. The effect of solute Rayleigh number, porosity modified conductivity ratio, Lewis number, diffusivity ratio, Vadasz number and Taylor number on the stability of the system is investigated. The non-linear theory based on the truncated representation of Fourier series method predicts the occurrence of subcritical instability in the form of finite amplitude motions. The effect of thermal non-equilibrium on heat and mass transfer is also brought out.     

Oscillatory heat transfer process in a vertical strip immersed in a porous medium

In this work, the transient conjugated heat transfer characteristics of a thin long vertical strip embedded in a porous medium has been studied using numerical and asymptotic techniques. The oscillatory nondimensional temperature evolution in the strip and the reduced Nusselt number at the top of the strip are obtained as a function of the Fourier number, Fo, which relates the fluctuating to the steady thermal penetration lengths. The numerical results of the root mean square of the fluctuating reduced Nusselt number have been obtained covering the complete transition from fast (Fo 1) to slow (Fo 1) thermal oscillations. Asymptotic solutions are obtained in these two limits and compared with the numerical results.     

A study on interstitial heat transfer in consolidated and unconsolidated porous media

The Nusselt number expressions are presented for the interstitial heat transfer coefficients for both consolidated and unconsolidated porous media. A boundary layer consideration is made for unconsolidated porous media to derive a general Nusselt number correlation, which shows its square root dependence of the Reynolds number, and matches fairly well with existing experimental data and correlations. As for low density consolidated porous media, rigorous mathematical arguments based on the volume averaging theory are provided, so as to explain the reason why the Reynolds number exponent of the Nusselt number expression for the case of low density consolidated porous media is much greater than that of unconsolidated porous media. The resulting expressions are compared against available experimental data and empirical correlations, and found to be in good accord with them.     

A numerical study of heat and momentum transfer for tube bundles in crossflow

A numerical scheme is developed to predict the heat transfer and pressure drop coefficients in flow through rigid tube bundles. The scheme uses the Galerkin finite element technique. The conservation equations for laminar steady-state flow are cast in the form of streamfunction and vorticity equations. A Picard iteration method is used for the solution of the resulting system of non-linear algebraic equations. Results for the heat transfer and pressure drop coefficients are obtained for tube arrays of pitch ratios of 1·5 and 2·0. Very good agreement of the present results and experimental data obtained in the past is observed up to Reynolds numbers of 1000. It is also observed that the results of the present method show better agreement with the experimental data and that they are applicable for higher Reynolds numbers than results of other studies.     

多孔介质中二维对流传热的分叉

本文利用分叉理论研究了流体饱和的二维多孔介质从底部加热所引起的自然对流,用有限差分方法确定对流的分叉进程;揭示其模式转换机理及分叉对非正常流动图象形成的影响;同时确定了矩形截面宽高比与临界端利数的关系。还提出了一个判别分支稳定笥的简明方法。     

Mathematical model of heat and mass transfer in a bidisperse porous material

A model of heat and mass processes in a body with two types of pores is considered. This model describes the initial stage of substance penetration into the porous system (or the inverse process, namely, substance extraction from the system) and takes into account convective transport in large channels. A kinetic function of impregnation (extraction) of the porous medium and the substance flux density are found for a problem with additional conditions.     

A numerical study of heat transfer during flow of melt in a cylindrical mould

A numerical analysis of transient heat transfer during the flow of a melt in a cylindrical mould is presented. The analysis includes thermal resistance at the melt-mould interface, and axial conduction inside both melt and mould. Energy equations are formulated in a domain that expands continuously due to the advance of the melt inside the empty mould, and solved by the finite difference method using a time-stepping procedure. Calculations are compared to existing analytic results. It is found that axial conduction in the melt can significantly influence the rate of heat loss from the flowing melt, and that analytic approximations, which neglect axial conduction, may give erroneous predictions for the rate of heat loss.     

Effects of thermal stratification on flow and heat transfer past a porous vertical stretching surface

The aim of this paper is to present the boundary layer flow of viscous incompressible fluid due to a porous vertical stretching surface with a power-law stretching velocity in a thermally stratified medium. Using a special form of Lie group transformations viz. scaling group of transformations, similarity solutions for this problem are obtained. The equations are then solved numerically. With increasing values of the stratification parameter, the velocity as well as temperature decreases. At a particular point of the porous stretching sheet, the velocity decreases with the increasing suction parameter. The dimensionless temperature at a point of the sheet decreases due to suction but increases due to injection. The findings of this study reveal that stratification and suction can be used as means of cooling the boundary layer flow region.     

Linear and nonlinear double diffusive convection in a rotating sparsely packed porous layer using a thermal non-equilibrium model

Double diffusive convection in a fluid-saturated rotating porous layer is studied when the fluid and solid phases are not in local thermal equilibrium, using both linear and nonlinear stability analyses. The Brinkman model that includes the Coriolis term is employed as the momentum equation. A two-field model that represents the fluid and solid phase temperature fields separately is used for the energy equation. The onset criterion for stationary, oscillatory, and finite amplitude convection is derived analytically. It is found that small inter-phase heat transfer coefficient has significant effect on the stability of the system. There is a competition between the processes of thermal diffusion, solute diffusion, and rotation that causes the convection to set in through either oscillatory or finite amplitude mode rather than stationary. The effect of solute Rayleigh number, porosity modified conductivity ratio, Lewis number, diffusivity ratio, Vadasz number, and Taylor number on the stability of the system is investigated. The nonlinear theory based on the truncated representation of Fourier series method predicts the occurrence of subcritical instability in the form of finite amplitude motions. The effect of thermal non-equilibrium on heat and mass transfer is also brought out. Some of the convection systems previously reported in the literature is shown to be special cases of the system presented in this study.     

Effect of local thermal non-equilibrium on unsteady heat transfer by natural convection of a nanofluid over a vertical wavy surface

This paper uses thermal non-equilibrium model to study transient heat transfer by natural convection of a nanofluid over a vertical wavy surface. The model used for the nanofluid incorporates the effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis. Three-temperature model is applied to represent the local thermal non-equilibrium among the particle, fluid, and solid-matrix phases. Finite difference method is used to solve the dimensionless governing equations of the problem. The obtained results are displayed in 2D graphs to illustrate the influences of the different physical parameters on local skin-friction coefficient, local Nusselt numbers for fluid, particle and solid phases and local Sherwood number. The results for velocity component, nanoparticle volume fraction, fluid temperature, particle temperature and solid-matrix temperature are presented in 3D graphs as a function of the axial and transverse coordinates. All the obtained results are discussed.     

A simple heat transfer model for furnaces based on the zoning method

A simplified method for calculation of the radiative heat transfer in furnaces with rectangular crosssection based on the zoning method has been developed. The furnace is divided longitudinally into chambers. The net radiative intensity between any two chambers is considered to be independent of the angle. The chambers are also coupled by the gas mass flow.