Conjugate natural convection in a fluid-saturated porous enclosure with two solid vertical partitions

Conjugate natural convection in a fluid-saturated square porous enclosure with two solid vertical partitions of finite and equal thickness equispaced from center of enclosure is investigated in this paper. The primary objective is to attenuate the Nusselt number (Nu) and hence the heat transfer rate across a differentially heated enclosure. Darcy's model is considered. Numerical computation is performed using successive accelerated replacement and explicit scheme. Partition ratio, partition length, thermal conductivity ratio, and modified Rayleigh number are the parameters under study. Fluid flow is analyzed by observing transient changes of streamlines and isotherms for partition length 0.3-1, thermal conductivity ratio 0.5-2, partition ratio 0.1-0.3 and modified Rayleigh number 100 and 1000 where partition ratio is the ratio of distance between center of enclosure and either of the partition center to the total length of the enclosure; while Nusselt number is calculated to estimate the heat transfer rate for each configuration. It is found that, employing a solid partition within the enclosure most definitely reduces the Nusselt number. The drop in Nusselt number is more for partition length 0-0.6 after which it does show a drop in Nu but only very subtle. Further, Nu is the least for partition ratio 0.2. Also, Nusselt number is proportional to thermal conductivity ratio which is the ratio of thermal conductivity of solid to porous medium.     

Aspect ratio effect on natural convection in a square enclosure with a sinusoidal active thermal wall using a thermal non-equilibrium model

ABSTRACT

A numerical investigation of the aspect ratio effect on natural convection in a square enclosure is carried out by adopting the local thermal non-equilibrium model. The top and bottom walls of the enclosure are adiabatic, the left vertical wall is partially heated and cooled by the sinusoidal thermal boundary condition, and the right vertical wall is maintained at uniform thermal boundary condition. The results show the value of periodicity parameter increasing. The streamlines vary in different patterns, rotating clockwise and counterclockwise simultaneously when N > 1, and the number of clockwise and counterclockwise rotating cells increases with the increase of N and equals the value of N. The sinusoidal local Nusselt number profiles are observed and the wave amplitude of local Nusselt number decreases with the increase of aspect ratio, and the absolute values of average Nusselt number at left wall of porous cavity reach maximum when Ar = 1. The absolute value of solid-to-fluid temperature differences decreases as the inter-phase heat transfer coefficient (H) increases and it increases as the value of aspect ratio increases. The total heat transfer of porous cavity can be enhanced by increasing the aspect ratio and the thermal conductivity ratio.     

Laminar boundary-layer analysis of simultaneous mass and heat transfer in natural convection around A horizontal cylinder

An analytical study is presented of the combined heat and mass transfer characteristics of natural convection flow around a horizontal circular cylinder. The surface of the cylinder is assumed to be at uniform temperature and uniform concentration. Specific cases of diffusion of water vapour and naphthalene into air are studied. The results indicate that the local Nusselt number and the local wall shear stress increase and decrease from the pure free convection values as the buoyancy force from species diffusion assists and opposes, respectively, the thermal buoyancy force. The local Nusselt number and the local wall shear stress are found to increase with the decrease of the Schmidt number, whereas the surface mass transfer increases with increasing Schmidt number. The Sherwood number is found to become more effective as the thermal buoyancy force increases. The cumulative tangential mass flow rate is found to increase with the increase of the polar angle from the lower pole and is strongly dependent on the nature and magnitude of the concentration to thermal buoyancy force ratio, especially at low Schmidt number.     

Natural convection for hot materials confined within two entrapped porous trapezoidal cavities

This paper analyzes the detailed heat transfer and fluid flow within two entrapped porous trapezoidal cavities involving cold inclined walls and hot horizontal walls. Flow patterns and temperature distribution were obtained by solving numerically the governing equations, using Darcy's law. Results are presented for different values of the governing parameters, such as Darcy-modified Rayleigh number, aspect ratio of two entrapped trapezoidal cavities and thermal conductivity ratio between the middle horizontal wall and fluid medium. Heat transfer rates are estimated in terms of local and mean Nusselt numbers. Local Nusselt numbers with spatial distribution exhibit monotonic trend irrespective of all Rayleigh numbers for the upper trapezoidal whereas wavy distribution of local Nusselt number occur for the lower trapezoidal.     

Analysis of mixed convection in a vertical porous layer using non-equilibrium model

The problem of two-dimensional steady mixed convection in a vertical porous layer is investigated numerically in the present paper using the thermally non-equilibrium model. The vertical porous layer is assumed to have a finite isothermally heated segment on one vertical wall which is otherwise adiabatic and the other vertical wall is cooled to a constant temperature. Non-dimensionalization of the governing equations results in four parameters for both aiding and opposing flows: (1) Ra, Rayleigh number (2) Pe, Péclet number (3) K_r, thermal conductivity ratio parameter, and (4) H, heat transfer coefficient parameter. The numerical results are presented for 0.01  H  100, 0.01  K_r  100, 0.01  Pe  100 and Ra = 10, 50 and 100. The results show that, the thermal equilibrium model cannot predict the average Nusselt number correctly for small values of H × K_r. In both the aiding and opposing flows, the total average Nusselt number is decreasing with increasing the heat transfer coefficient parameter at low values of Pe, while for high values of Pe, higher H will enhance the total heat transfer rate. Increasing the thermal conductivity ratio leads to increase in the total average Nusselt number. It is found also that the total average Nusselt number depends strongly on the thermal conductivity ratio parameter and depends slightly on the heat transfer coefficient parameter.     

Unsteady conjugate natural convection in a porous cavity boarded by two vertical finite thickness walls

The objective of this study is to investigate unsteady conjugate natural convection in a porous cavity sandwiched by finite conductive walls considering time-periodic boundary conditions and local thermal non-equilibrium. The top and bottom boundaries are assumed to be isolated and the continuity of temperature and heat transfer are considered in interface boundaries. The effect of varying a plethora of parameters such as Rayleigh number, Thermal conductivity ratio, wall thickness, and non-dimensional frequency on the streamlines, isotherms, and Nusselt number has been studied. It is shown that, apart from non-dimensional frequency and wall thickness, the amplitude of periodic fluid Nusselt number is an increasing function of all aforementioned parameters. Furthermore, aside from Rayleigh number and heat transfer coefficient, the behavior of the solid Nusselt number is the same as fluid Nusselt number. Eventually, the time-averaged Nusselt number and heat transfer through the vertical walls for different values of non-dimensional frequencies are calculated.     

Effect of nanofluid variable properties on natural convection in enclosures

In this work, the heat transfer enhancement in a differentially heated enclosure using variable thermal conductivity and variable viscosity of Al₂O₃–water and CuO–water nanofluids is investigated. The results are presented over a wide range of Rayleigh numbers (Ra = 10³–10⁵), volume fractions of nanoparticles (0 ≤ φ ≤ 9%), and aspect ratios (½ ≤ A ≤ 2). For an enclosure with unity aspect ratio, the average Nusselt number of a Al₂O₃–water nanofluid at high Rayleigh numbers was reduced by increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles above 5%. However, at low Rayleigh numbers, the average Nusselt number was slightly enhanced by increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles. At high Rayleigh numbers, CuO–water nanofluids manifest a continuous decrease in Nusselt number as the volume fraction of nanoparticles is increased. However, the Nusselt number was not sensitive to the volume fraction at low Rayleigh numbers. The Nusselt number demonstrates to be sensitive to the aspect ratio. It was observed that enclosures, having high aspect ratios, experience more deterioration in the average Nusselt number when compared to enclosures having low aspect ratios. The variable thermal conductivity and variable viscosity models were compared to both the Maxwell-Garnett model and the Brinkman model. It was found that at high Rayleigh numbers the average Nusselt number was more sensitive to the viscosity models than to the thermal conductivity models.     

Visualization of heat flow using Bejan’s heatline due to natural convection of water near 4 °C in thick walled porous cavity

A numerical study on natural convection heat transfer of cold water near 4 °C in a thick bottom walled cavity filled with a porous medium has been performed. It is assumed that the cavity is isothermally heated from the outside of the thick bottom wall and cooled from ceiling. The finite-difference method has been used to solve the governing partial differential equations of heat and fluid flow. Effects of thermal conductivity ratio, Rayleigh number and bottom wall thickness on heat transfer from the bottom to the ceiling have been studied. The heatline visualization technique has been used to demonstrate the path of heat transport through the enclosure. Moreover, streamlines and isotherms have been used to present fluid flow and temperature distributions. The obtained results show that multiple circulation cells are formed in the cavity and the local Nusselt numbers at the bottom wall and solid–fluid interface are highly affected by formed cells. The increase of Rayleigh number and thermal conductivity ratio increases heat transfer through the cavity. However, the increase of thickness of the bottom wall reduces the mean Nusselt number. Almost one-dimensional conduction heat transfer is observed in the solid bottom wall of the cavity.     

Numerical analysis of heat transfer and flow field around cross-flow heat exchanger tube with fouling

Fouling is one of the main problems of heat transfer which can be described as the accumulation on the heat exchanger tubes, i.e.; ash deposits on the heat exchanger unit of the boiler. A decrease in heat transfer rate by this deposition causes loss in system efficiency and leads to increasing in operating and maintenance costs. This problem concerns with the coupling among conduction heat transfer mode between solid of different types, conjugate heat transfer at the interface of solid and fluid, and the conduction/convection heat transfer mode in the fluid which can not be solved analytically. In this paper, fouling effect on heat transfer around a cylinder in cross flow has been studied numerically by using conjugate heat transfer approach. Unlike other numerical techniques in existing literatures, an unstructured control volume finite element method (CVFEM) has been developed in this present work. The study deals with laminar flow where the Reynolds number is limited in the range that the flow field over the cylinder is laminar and steady. We concern the fouling shape as an eccentric annulus with constant thermal properties. The local heat transfer coefficient, temperature distribution and mean heat transfer coefficient along the fouling surface are given for concentric and eccentric cases. From the results, we have found that the heat transfer rate of cross-flow heat exchanger depends on the eccentricity and thermal conductivity ratio between the fouling material and fluid. The effect of eccentric is dominant in the region near the front stagnation point due to high temperature and velocity gradients. The mean Nusselt number varies in asymptotic fashion with the thermal conductivity ratio. Fluid Prandtl number has a prominent effect on the distribution of local Nusselt number and the temperature along the fouling surface.     

Laminar Natural Convection of Bingham Fluids in Square Cross-Sectioned Cylindrical Annular Cavity with Differentially Heated Vertical Walls Subjected to Constant Heat Fluxes

Steady-state numerical simulations have been conducted to investigate natural convection of yield stress fluids obeying Bingham model in square cross-sectioned axisymmetric cylindrical annular enclosure with vertical walls subjected to constant heat fluxes for nominal Rayleigh number range of 10³ to 10⁶, nominal Prandtl number of 10 to 10³ for different values of internal cylinder radius. It is found that the mean Nusselt number on the inner periphery increases (decreases) with increasing nominal Rayleigh (Bingham) number due to strengthening (weakening) of thermal advection. However, the values of the mean Nusselt number on the inner periphery obtained for Bingham fluids are smaller than that obtained for Newtonian fluids for the same set of nominal Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers. The mean Nusselt number normalized by the corresponding value obtained for pure conductive transport increases with increasing internal radius before asymptotically approaching the mean Nusselt number for a square enclosure. This suggests that the ratio of the convective to the conductive transport strengthens with increasing cylinder radius in the cylindrical annular cavity. Detailed physical explanations have been provided for the effects of the aforementioned parameters on the mean Nusselt number on the inner periphery and correlations have been proposed for the mean Nusselt number on the inner periphery for both Newtonian and Bingham fluids.     

Prediction of local heat transfer characteristics of dilute gas‐solid flows through an adiabatic,horizontal pipe

The local heat transfer characteristics of gas‐solid flows through an adiabatic, horizontal pipe are numerically studied using the two‐fluid model of Ansys Fluent 15. First, the model is validated with the experimental results available in the literature for the air temperature and average Nusselt number. Then, the local heat transfer characteristics of gas‐solid flows, such as temperature profiles of gas and solid, gas‐solid Nusselt number, logarithmic mean temperature difference, and effectiveness of gas and solid, are studied by changing different parameters (gas velocities 15‐24 m/s; inlet solid loading ratios 0.1‐1; particle diameters 100‐400 µm). It is observed that increasing the particle diameter and inlet gas velocity increases the gas temperature and decreases the solid temperature, increases the logarithmic mean temperature difference, and decreases the thermal effectiveness of gas and solid. However, increasing the solid loading ratio decreases the gas and solid temperatures, decreases the logarithmic mean temperature difference, and increases the thermal effectiveness of gas and decreases the thermal effectiveness of solid. Moreover, increasing the particle diameter decreases the gas‐solid Nusselt number, whereas increasing the solid loading ratio and inlet gas velocity increase the gas‐solid Nusselt number.     

Viscous dissipation effect on mixed convective heat transfer of MHD flow of Williamson nanofluid over a stretching cylinder in the presence of variable thermal conductivity and chemical reaction

The effect of viscous dissipation and thermal radiation on mixed convective heat transfer of an MHD Williamson nanofluid past a stretching cylinder in the existence of chemical reaction is analyzed in this study. When energy equation is formulated, the variable thermal conductivity is deliberated. By proposing applicable similarity transformations, nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are attained from partial differential equations. These nondimensional ODEs are computed through Runge-Kutta method integrated with shooting method using MATLAB software. The results found numerically are in agreement with that of the published works of similar nature in a limiting case. The results of the local Nusselt number, skin friction coefficient, and Sherwood numbers are organized in tables. The influence of protuberant parameters on temperature, velocity, and concentration is presented by graphs. From the results, it is seen that for higher values of variable thermal conductivity parameter, the local Sherwood number and skin friction coefficient upsurge, whereas the local Nusselt number diminishes.     

Natural convection in a vertical annulus driven by a central heat generating rod

A numerical study of the conjugate natural convection in a vertical annulus with a centrally located vertical heat generating rod is performed. The formulation in primitive form is solved using a pressure-correction algorithm. A parametric study is conducted by varying the heat generation based Grashof number, aspect ratio and the solid-to-fluid thermal conductivity ratio over wide ranges with the Prandtl number fixed at 0.7. Results are presented for the temperature distributions and Nusselt numbers. The average Nusselt numbers on the inner and outer boundaries show an increasing trend with the Grashof number. Correlations are presented for the Nusselt number and the dimensionless temperatures of interest in terms of the parameters of the problem.     

Comparison and Analysis of Heat Transfer in Aluminum Foam Using Local Thermal Equilibrium or Nonequilibrium Model

Aluminum foams are favorable in modern thermal engineering applications because of the high thermal conductivity and the large specific surface area. The present study aims to investigate an application of porous aluminum foam by using the local thermal equilibrium (LTE) and local thermal nonequilibrium (LTNE) heat transfer models. Three-dimensional simulations of laminar flow (porous foam zone), turbulent flow (open zone), and heat transfer are performed by a computational fluid dynamics approach. In addition, the Forchheimer extended Darcy's law is employed to evaluate the fluid characteristics. By comparing and analyzing the average and local Nusselt numbers, it is found that the LTNE and LTE models can reach the same Nusselt numbers inside the aluminum foam when the air velocity is high, meaning that the aluminum foam is in a thermal equilibrium state. Besides, a high interfacial heat transfer coefficient is required for the aluminum foam to reach a thermal equilibrium state as the height of the aluminum foam is reduced. This study suggests that the LTE model can be applied to predict the thermal performance at high fluid velocities or for the case with a large height.     

Non-Darcian Effects on the Mixed Convection Heat Transfer in a Metallic Porous Block with a Confined Slot Jet

The present numerical investigation addresses non-Darcian effects on the mixed convection heat transfer in a metallic porous block with a confined slot jet. The generalized model of the momentum equation, which is also known as the Forchheimer-Brinkman extended Darcy model, was used in representing the fluid motion inside the porous layer. The local thermal equilibrium condition was assumed to be valid for the range of the thermophysical parameters considered in the present investigation. The transport equations were solved using the finite element formulation based on the Galerkin method of weighted residuals. The validity of the numerical code used was ascertained by comparing our results with previously published results. Our results revealed that the heat transfer performance of the slot jet was 2.4 times as large as that without the presence of a porous block. In addition, the average Nusselt number was found to increase with a decrease in porosity and an increase in the thermal conductivity ratio. The present results illustrate that the average Nusselt number increases with a decrease in the dimensionless height of the porous layer up to H _porous =  0.05 , after which the Nusselt number decreases.     

Non—Darcian and Anisotropic Effects on Natural Convection in Horizontal Porous Media Enclosure

Natural convection heat transfer in a horizontal enclosure filled with anisotropic porous media,being isothermally heated at bettom and cooled at top while the vertical walls being adiabatic,is numerically studied by applying the Brinkman model-a modified form of Darcy model giving consideratioin to the viscous effect.The results show that:(1)a larger permeability ratio(K^*) causes a lower flow intensity in the enclosure and a smaller Nusselt number,all Nusselt numbers approach unity in the limit of K^*→∞;a larger thermal conductivity ratio(λ^*) causes a stranger distortion of isotherms in the enclosure and a higher flow velocity near the walls,all the Nusselt numbers approach unity in the limit of λ^*-→0,the permeability and thermal conductivity ratios generally have opposing effects on the Nusselt number.(2) an increasing Darcy number decreases the flow intensity and heat tansfer rates,which is more significant at a lower permeability ratio.In particular,with K^*≤0.25,the Nusselt number for Da=10^-3 would differ from that of Darcy flow up to an amount of 30%,an analysis neglecting the non-Darican effect will inevitably be of considerable error.     

Effect of local thermal non-equilibrium on thermally developing forced convection in a porous medium

The classical Graetz methodology is applied to investigate the effect of local thermal non-equilibrium on the thermal development of forced convection in a parallel-plate channel filled by a saturated porous medium, with walls held at constant temperature. The Brinkman model is employed. The analysis leads to an expression for the local Nusselt number, as a function of the dimensionless longitudinal coordinate, the Péclet number, the Darcy number, the solid-fluid heat exchange parameter, the solid/fluid thermal conductivity ratio, and the porosity.     

Coupled heat and mass transfer in mixed convection over a wedge with variable wall temperature and concentration in porous media: The entire regime

A boundary layer analysis is used to investigate both heat and mass transfer characteristics of mixed convection about a wedge in saturated porous media under the coupled effects of thermal and mass diffusion. The surface of the wedge is maintained at a variable wall temperature (VWT) and variable wall concentration (VWC). The nonsimilar governing equations are obtained by using a suitable transformation and solved by Keller box method. Numerical results are presented for the local Nusselt number and the local Sherwood number. Increasing the buoyancy ratio N, the exponent of wall temperature/concentration n and the wedge angle parameter λ increases the local Nusselt number and the local Sherwood number. As mixed convection parameter χ varies from 0 to 1, the local Nusselt number and the local Sherwood number decrease initially, reach a minimum in the intermediate value of χ and then increase gradually. It is apparent that the Lewis number has a pronounced effect on the local Sherwood number than it does on the local Nusselt number. Furthermore, increasing the Lewis number decreases (increases) the local heat (mass) transfer rate.     

Thermal performance of straight porous fin with variable thermal conductivity under magnetic field and radiation effects

The present numerical study reports the thermal performance of the straight porous fin with temperature-dependent thermal conductivity, radiation, and magnetic field effects. The heat transfer model comprising the Darcy's law for simulating flow with solid-fluid interactions in porous medium, Rosseland approximation for heat transfer through radiation, Maxwell equations for magnetic field effect and linearly varying temperature dependent thermal conductivity, results into highly nonlinear ordinary differential equation. The governing equation is solved using a finite difference scheme with suitable boundary conditions. The obtained solutions are physically interpreted by considering the impact of different nondimensional parameters on thermal performance, efficiency, and effectiveness of the system through plotted graphs. A detailed result with regard to the Nusselt number at the fin base is calculated. The results obtained are observed to be in excellent agreement with previous studies. From the study, it is observed that there is a significant effect on the thermal performance of the fin in the presence of porous constraints; also, results reveal that the nonlinear thermal conductivity parameter strengthens the thermal performance, efficiency, and effectiveness of the fin. Furthermore, the results of the study reveal that the rate of heat transfer of the fin increases with the increase in the magnetic parameter and radiation parameter.     

Forced convection in a bi-disperse porous medium channel: a conjugate problem

Forced convection in a plane channel filled with a saturated bi-disperse porous medium, coupled with conduction in plane slabs bounding the channel, is investigated analytically on the basis of a two-velocity, two-temperature model. It is found that the effect of the finite thermal resistance due to the slabs is to reduce both the heat transfer to the porous medium and the degree of local thermal non-equilibrium. An increase in value of the Péclet number leads to a decrease in the rate of exponential decay in the downstream direction but does not affect the value of a suitably defined Nusselt number. The dependence of Nusselt number on Biot number associated with the boundary slabs, the interphase heat exchange parameter, the interphase thermal conductivity ratio, the interphase effective permeability ratio, and the macroscopic void fraction, is investigated.