Thermal interaction between natural convection on one side of a vertical wall and forced convection on the other side

An analysis is made for the conjugate heat transfer problem of natural convection on one side of a vertical wall and forced convection on the other side. The natural convection mode is treated analytically by employing the Oseen linearization approach developed by Gill. The forced convection boundary layer is analyzed on the basis of the integral technique. The two solutions are matched on the separating wall so as to satisfy the continuity of heat flux between the two fluids. The analysis shows that the complexion of this two-fluid problem is governed by a dimensionless conjugate parameter, R, which relates the heat transfer effectiveness of forced convection mode to that of free convection mode. The boundary conditions at the wall are not prescribed in the analysis in advance, rather, determined among the results. The heat transfer and flow characteristics in the two counter-flowing boundary layers are presented graphically. Heat transfer results of engineering importance are determined as a function of the conjugation parameter. Received on 19 August 1998     

基于蒙特卡罗随机有限元方法的随机多孔介质内流体自然对流不确定性研究

为分析孔隙率不确定性对多孔介质方腔内自然对流换热的影响,发展了一种基于KL（Karhunen-Loeve展开）-蒙特卡罗随机有限元算法的随机多孔介质内自然对流不确定性分析数理模型及有限元数值模拟程序框架。通过K-L展开及基于拉丁抽样法生成多孔介质孔隙率随机实现,并耦合多孔介质自然对流有限元程序,进行随机多孔介质内自然对流传热数值模拟,得出了多孔介质内流场与温度场平均值与标准偏差,并分析了孔隙率不确定性条件下Da数对Nu数的影响。结果表明,孔隙率不确定性对多孔介质方腔内自然对流有重要影响。随机多孔介质内流场及温度场与确定性条件下的流场及温度场存在一定偏差,Nu数标准偏差随着Da的增大先增大后减小。     

Magnetic and Gravitational Convection of Air in a Porous Cubic Enclosure with a Coil Inclined Around the Y Axis

The natural convection heat transfer of air in a porous media can be controlled by gradient magnetic field. Thermomagnetic convection of air in a porous cubic enclosure with an electric coil inclined around the $Y$ axis was numerically investigated. The Biot–Savart law was used to calculate the magnetic field. The governing equations in primitive variables were discretized by the finite-volume method and solved by the SIMPLE algorithm. The flow and temperature fields for the air natural convection were presented and the mean Nusselt number on the hot wall was calculated and compared. The results show that both the magnetic force and coil inclination have significant effect on the flow field and heat transfer in a porous cubic enclosure, the natural convection heat transfer of air can be enhanced or controlled by applying gradient magnetic field.     

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.     

Natural convection in a porous medium coupled across an impermeable vertical wall with film condensation

This paper presents a theoretical study of thermofluid interaction between natural convection in fluid-saturated porous medium and film condensation, coupled through an impermeable vertical wall. The two heat transfer modes are analyzed separately. The solutions are matched on the wall. The complexion of this two-fluid problem is governed by a dimensionless interaction parameter which relates the heat transfer effectiveness of the two heat transfer mechanisms. The effect of this parameter on the flow and heat transfer is documented. Results regarding the overall heat transfer coefficient are obtained for a wide range of the independent parameters. Received on 19 January 1998     

Natural convection in an inclined rectangular porous cavity with uniform heat flux from the side

The problem of natural convection in an inclined rectangular porous layer enclosure is studied numerically. The enclosure is heated from one side and cooled from the other by a constant heat flux while the two other walls are insulated. The effect of aspect ratio, inclination angle and Rayleigh number on heat transfer is studied. It is found that the enclosure orientation has a considerable effect on the heat transfer. The negative orientation sharply inhibits the convection and consequently the heat transfer and a positive orientation maximizes the energy transfer. The maximum temperature within the porous medium can be considerably higher than that induced by pure conduction when the cavity is negatively oriented. The peak of the average Nusselt number depends on the Rayleigh number and the aspect ratio. The heat transfer between the two thermally active boundaries is sensitive to the effect of aspect ratio. For an enclosure at high or low aspect ratio, the convection is considerably decreased and the heat transfer depends mainly on conduction.     

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.     

Flows in a lower half heated upper half cooled cylindrical model reactor loaded with porous media

This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation on the natural convection flow in a cylindrical model hydrothermal reactor. The flow is visualized non-intrusively and simulated with a conjugate computational model. Results show that the flow structure consists of wall layers and core flows. In the lower half, the flows are steady due to the porous media. The three-dimensional unsteady upper core flow is driven by the streams originated from the wall layer collision. The thermal condition in the upper half core region is mainly determined by the total heat flow rate specified on the lower sidewall; while the variations of porous media parameters, in the normal range for hydrothermal crystal growth process, have minor effects.     

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.     

The effect of thermal dispersion on free convection film condensation on a vertical plate with a thin porous layer

An analytical solution to the problem of condensation by natural convection over a thin porous substrate attached to a cooled impermeable surface has been conducted to determine the velocity and temperature profiles within the porous layer, the dimensionless thickness film and the local Nusselt number. In the porous region, the Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer (DBF) model describes the flow and the thermal dispersion is taken into account in the energy equation. The classical boundary layer equations without inertia and enthalpyterms are used in the condensate region. It is found that due to the thermal dispersion effect, the increasing of heat transfer is significant. The comparison of the DBF model and the Darcy–Brinkman (DB) one is carried out.     

Thermal stratification studies in a side heated water pool for advanced heavy water reactor applications

Strong heat source at the isolation condenser wall of an Advanced Heavy Water Reactor, results in natural convection in gravity driven water pool, which leads to a thermally stratified pool. Governing equations simulating fluid flow and heat distribution are solved numerically by a general purpose Computational Fluid Dynamics solver developed at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. Incompressible finite volume method with non-staggered grid arrangement is used in this exercise. This algorithm is fully implicit and semi-coupled. Turbulent natural convection in a boundary layer for high Rayleigh numbers is analyzed by the Lam–Bremhorst k − ε turbulence model. Analysis of unsteady laminar natural convection in a side-heated water cavity is also done for different values of Rayleigh number. Results show a warm fluid layer floating on the top of gradually colder layer (along the vertical direction) that indicates the presence of thermal stratification phenomenon. This fact necessitates additional safety features in such a system so that the detrimental effect such as stratification is minimized.     

An experimental study of the effect of wall temperature nonuniformity on natural convection in an enclosure heated from the side

An experimental study of natural convection in a parallelepipedal enclosure induced by a single vertical wall is described. The upper half of this wall was warm and the lower half cold. The other enclosure walls were insulated. The temperature and flow measurements were performed in the high Rayleigh number regime (10¹⁰<Ra<5×10¹⁰) by using water as the working fluid. The Rayleigh number was based on the enclosure height and the temperature difference between the warm and the cold part of the driving wall. The flow field featured two flat cells, one filled with warm fluid along the top horizontal wall, and the other filled with cold fluid along the bottom horizontal wall. Each of these cells was surrounded by an additional cell as tall as half the enclosure height. The above flow structure prohibited extensive thermal contact between warm and cold fluid, thus limiting the role of convection on the heat transfer process in the cavity. The findings of this study differ significantly from the findings of previous studies based on the ‘classical’ enclosure model possessing two isothermal vertical walls, the one warm and the other cold, and support the view that the use of ‘more realistic‘ temperature boundary conditions in enclosure natural convection needs careful examination.     

Transient mixed convection flow instabilities in a vertical pipe

The present paper investigates a numerical study of flow instabilities in transient mixed convection in a vertical pipe. At the entrance of the pipe, the flow is suddenly submitted to a temperature step. The convection heat transfer on the outer surface of the pipe is taken into account. The governing equations are solved using a finite difference explicit scheme. The numerical results show that the time development of streamlines and isotherms is strongly dependent on the inlet temperature steps. For positive temperature steps, the unsteady vortex is significant in the vicinity of the wall and the reversal flow appears below the wave instability. In the case of negative temperature steps and especially for the low Reynolds number, the reversal flow appears on top of the wave instability. During the transient, the apparition of the vortical structures along the wall leads to the wall boundary layer instability. This phenomenon is due to the transient mixed convection flows. The temperature step effects on the heat transfer of the flow are presented in our paper.     

Double-Diffusive Free Convection Flow Past an Inclined Plate Embedded in a Non-Darcy Porous Medium Saturated with a Nanofluid

In this investigation, we intend to present the influence of the prominent Soret effect on double-diffusive free convection heat and mass transfer in the boundary layer region of a semi-infinite inclined flat plate in a nanofluid saturated non-Darcy porous medium. The transformed boundary layer ordinary differential equations are solved numerically using the shooting and matching technique. Consideration of the nanofluid and the coupled convective process enhanced the number of non-dimensional parameters considerably thereby increasing the complexity of the present problem. A wide range of parameter values are chosen to bring out the effect of Soret parameter on the free convection process with varying angle of inclinations making the wall geometry from vertical to horizontal plate. The effects of angle of inclination and Soret parameter on the flow, heat and mass transfer coefficients are analyzed. The numerical results obtained for the velocity, temperature, volume fraction, and concentration profiles, local wall temperature, local nanoparticle concentration, and local wall concentration reveal interesting phenomenon, and some of these qualitative results are presented through the plots.     

Conduction-radiation effect on natural convection flow in fluid-saturated non-Darcy porous medium enclosed by non-isothermal walls

The combined effect of conduction-convection-radiation on natural convection flow of an optically thick Newtonian fluid with gray radiant properties, confined in a porous media square cavity with Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer drag is studied numerically. For a gray fluid, Rosseland diffusion approximation is considered. It is assumed that (i) the temperature of the left vertical wall varies linearly with height, (ii) the right vertical and top walls are at a lower temperature, and (iii) the bottom wall is uniformly-heated. The governing equations are solved using the alternate direct implicit method together with the successive over relaxation technique. The investigation of the effect of governing parameters, namely, the Forschheimer resistance (Γ), the temperature difference (Δ), and the Plank number (Rd), on the flow pattern and heat transfer characteristics is carried out. It can be seen that the reduction of flow and heat transfer occur as the Forschheimer resistance is increased. On the other hand, both the flow strength and heat transfer increase as the temperature ratio Δ is increased.     

Effect of Time Periodic Boundary Conditions on Convective Flows in a Porous Square Enclosure with Non-Uniform Internal Heating

The problem of unsteady natural convection in a square region filled with a fluid-saturated porous medium having non-uniform internal heating and heated laterally is considered. The heated wall surface temperature varies sinusoidally with the time about fixed mean temperature. The opposite cold wall is maintained at a constant temperature. The top and bottom horizontal walls are kept adiabatic. The flow field is modelled with the Darcy model and is solved numerically using a finite difference method. The transient solutions obtained are all periodic in time. The effect of Rayleigh number, internal heating parameters, heating amplitude and oscillating frequency on the flow and temperature field as well as the total heat generated within the convective region are presented. It was found that strong internal heating can generate significant maximum fluid temperatures above the heated wall. The location of the maximum fluid temperature moves with time according to the periodically changing heated wall temperature. The augmentation of the space-averaged temperature in the cavity strongly depends on the heating amplitude and rather insensitive to the oscillating frequency.     

Conjugate heat transfer inside a porous channel

Analytical and numerical analyses have been performed for fully developed forced convection in a fluid-saturated porous medium channel bounded by two parallel plates. The channel walls are assumed to be finite in thickness. Conduction heat transfer inside the channel wall is also accounted and the full problem is treated as a conjugate heat transfer problem. The flow in the porous material is described by the Darcy–Brinkman momentum equation. The outer surfaces of the solid walls are treated as isothermal. A temperature dependent volumetric heat generation is considered inside the solid wall only. Analytical expressions for velocity, temperature, and Nusselt number are obtained after simplifying and solving the governing differential equations with reasonable approximations. Subsequent results obtained by numerical calculations show an excellent agreement with the analytical results.     

Thermosolutal Convection in a Rectangular Concentric Annulus: A Comprehensive Study

This investigation presents numerical treatment of governing equations pertaining to thermosolutal flow within an annulus and an application of a model describing the important physical phenomenon as found in muffle furnace. The inner side of the annulus is exposed to high temperature and high solute concentration while the outer side of the annulus is maintained at low temperature and low solute concentration. Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer model is used to study the flow, heat and solute transfer in a non-Darcian saturated porous media. The solution is obtained upon application of control volume integration. Modified MAC method is used for the numerical solution of governing equations. Gradient dependent consistent hybrid upwind scheme of second order (GDCHUSSO) is used for discretization of the convective terms. The parameters such as Rayleigh-Darcy number, Darcy number, buoyancy ratio and width ratio, that govern the flow phenomenon have been identified and their effects are critically examined. The fluid flow pattern in the annular space and the associated heat and mass transfer are conceptualized from the obtained isoconcentration, isotherm and flowline contour maps.     

正弦波温度边界下多孔介质方腔内非热平衡对流传热数值模拟

采用局部非热平衡模型,在方腔左侧壁面温度正弦波变化、右侧壁面温度均一的边界条件下,通过SIM-PLER算法数值研究了固体骨架发热多孔介质方腔内的稳态非达西自然对流,主要探讨了不同正弦波波动参数N及方腔的高宽比M/L对方腔内自然对流与传热的影响规律。计算结果表明:正弦波温度边界使得方腔内的流场出现了复杂的变化,流体及固体区域左侧壁面附近出现了周期性的正负变化的温度场分布,左侧壁面局部Nusselt数出现了周期性的震荡现象;存在一个最佳温度波动参数N=1,此时多孔介质方腔内的整体散热量达到最大值;增加方腔高宽比会显著地削弱方腔内的自然对流传热过程,小高宽比也会在一定的程度上削弱多孔介质方腔内的对流传热。     

Mixed Convection in Non-Newtonian Fluids Along an Isothermal Vertical Cylinder in a Porous Medium

Mixed convection in power-law type non-Newtonian fluids along an isothermal vertical cylinder in porous media is studied. The problem is solved by means of a finite difference method for the case of uniform wall temperature. Results for the details of the velocity and temperature fields as well as the Nusselt number have been presented. The viscosity index ranged from 0.5–1.5.