Forced Convective Heat Transfer in a Porous Plate Channel

INTRODUCTIONHeattransferenllancen1enttechniquesplayaveryimportantroleintllermalcontroltechnologies1lsedwithnlicroelectronicchips,powerfullasermirrors,aerospacecraft,thermalnuclearfusion,etc.Itiswidelyrecognizedthattl1eheattransfercanbein-creasedbyil1creasingthesurfaceareaincontactwiththecoolant.TuckermanandPease[1,2]pointedoutthatforlaminarflowinconfinedchannels,theheattransfercoefficientisinverselyproportionaltothewidthofthechannelsincethelimitingNusseltnum-berisconsta11t.Theybuiltawate…

Forced convective heat transfer in a porous plate channel

Forced convective heat transfer in a plate channel filled with metallic spherical particles was investigated experimentally and numerically. The test section, 58 mm×80 mm×5 mm in size, was heated by a 0.4 mm thick plate electrical heater. The coolant water flow rate ranged from 0.015 to 0.833 kg/s. The local wall temperature distribution was measured along with the inlet and outlet fluid temperatures and pressures. The results illustrate the heat transfer augmentation and increased pressure drop caused by the porous medium. The heat transfer coefficient was increased 5–12 times by the porous media although the hydraulic resistance was increased even more. The Nusselt number and the heat transfer coefficient increased with decreasing particle diameter, while the pressure drop decreased as the particle diameter increased. It was found that, for the conditions studied (metallic packed bed), the effect of thermal dispersion did not need to be considered in the physical model, as opposed to a non-metallic packed bed, where thermal dispersion is important.