Numerical study of natural convection in a vertical porous annulus with discrete heating

In this paper natural convection flows in a vertical annulus filled with a fluid-saturated porous medium has been investigated when the inner wall is subject to discrete heating. The outer wall is maintained isothermally at a lower temperature, while the top and bottom walls, and the unheated portions of the inner wall are kept adiabatic. Through the Brinkman-extended Darcy equation, the relative importance of discrete heating on natural convection in the porous annulus is examined. An implicit finite difference method has been used to solve the governing equations of the flow system. The analysis is carried out for a wide range of modified Rayleigh and Darcy numbers for different heat source lengths and locations. It is observed that placing of the heater in lower half of the inner wall rather than placing the heater near the top and bottom portions of the inner wall produces maximum heat transfer. The numerical results reveal that an increase in the radius ratio, modified Rayleigh number and Darcy number increases the heat transfer, while the heat transfer decreases with an increase in the length of the heater. The maximum temperature at the heater surface increases with an increase in the heater length, while it decreases when the modified Rayleigh number and Darcy number increases. Further, we find that the size and location of the heater effects the flow intensity and heat transfer rate in the annular cavity.     

Mixed convection within a porous heat generating horizontal annulus

A numerical investigation of mixed convection in a horizontal annulus filled with a uniform fluid-saturated porous medium in the presence of internal heat generation is carried out. The inner cylinder is heated while the outer cylinder is cooled. The forced flow is induced by the cold outer cylinder rotating at a constant angular velocity. The flow field is modeled using a generalized form of the momentum equation that accounts for the presence of porous medium viscous, Darcian and inertial effects. Discretization of the governing equations is achieved using a finite element scheme based on the Galerkin method of weighted residuals. Comparisons with previous works are performed and the results show excellent agreement. The effects of pertinent parameters such as the internal Rayleigh number, the Darcy number, the annulus gap, and the Richardson number on the flow and heat transfer characteristics are considered in the present study. The obtained results depict that the Richardson number plays a significant role on the heat transfer characterization within the annulus. The present results show that an increase in Reynolds number has a significant effect on the flow patterns within the annulus with respect to two-eddy, one-eddy and no-eddy flows. Categorization of the flow regimes according to the number of eddies is established on the Ra-Re plane for various Rayleigh numbers.     

Non-darcy mixed convection in a vertical porous channel with discrete heat sources at the walls

A numerical study of mixed convection in a parallel-plate vertical channel filled with a fluid-saturated porous medium and containing discrete heat sources at the walls is performed using the Brinkman-Forchheimer-extended Darcy model. The evolution of buoyancy-assisted mixed convection is examined for both the Darcy and the non-Darcy regimes. The results indicate that as the Darcy number is decreased, the location of flow separation from the cold wall did not change while reattachment moved further downstream. The Nusselt number increased with decreasing Darcy number and the effect of Darcy number is more pronounced over the first heat source and in the non-Darcy regime.     

Natural convection from a concentrated heat source in a saturated porous medium

A boundary-layer analysis of natural convection resulting from a point heat source in saturated porous medium is re-examined in this paper. The conditions for which the boundary-layer approximation is valid are carefully examined. The boundary-layer equations are shown to have solutions of similarity form for power-law variation of the center-line temperature. Closed-form solutions are presented for both flow and temperature fields.     

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.     

Natural convection heat transfer from a thermal heat source located in a vertical plate fin

A steady state conjugate conduction–convection investigation is performed on vertical plate fin in which a small heat source is located. Heat from the fin surface is transferred to the surroundings by laminar natural convection. The governing equations for the problem are the heat conduction equation for the fin and the boundary layer equations, which are continuity, momentum and energy equations, for the fluid. A computer program is written by using the finite difference method in order to solve the governing equations which are nonlinear and coupled. The best location of the heat source in the fin for maximum heat transfer rate depends on two parameters which are the conduction–convection parameter and the Prandtl number. The obtained results have shown that for the fin with large conduction–convection parameter, a heat source location for maximum heat transfer rate exists.     

Natural convection in a square porous annulus

The current study is focused to investigate the natural convective heat transfer characteristics in a porous square annulus. Finite element method is used as a tool to simplify the partial differential equations that govern the heat and fluid flow characteristics inside the porous medium. A simple three noded triangular element is used to divide the porous domain into smaller segments known as elements. The algebraic set of equations resulting from the finite element equation are assembled into a global matrix and then solved iteratively to get the solution variables. Thermal equilibrium as well as non equilibrium in porous domain is considered. The effect of various geometric and physical parameters are investigated. The boundary conditions are such that the inner walls of the annulus are heated isothermally to temperature T_h, and the outer surfaces are exposed to cool temperature T_c. The width ratio defined as the ratio of hollow portion to the length of the cavity is varied from 0.125 to 0.875. Results are discussed with respect to width ratio, Rayleigh number, radiation parameter and viscous dissipation parameter.     

Thermosolutal convection in a fluid‐porous composite medium

In the present study analysis has been performed for thermosolutal convection in a fluid‐porous composite medium, consisting of a fluid‐saturated porous medium followed by an overlaying clean medium. The fluid‐porous composite medium is subjected to both a horizontal solutal and a thermal gradient. Top and bottom walls of the fluid‐porous composite medium are assumed to be impermeable and adiabatic. The Darcy‐Brinkman‐Forchheimer model is used to study the flow through the fluid‐porous composite medium. A single domain approach is taken into consideration for numerical simulation. The solution is done by control volume integration. A comprehensive analysis has been performed for various pertinent parameters to delineate their behavior. Results of the transport phenomenon have been provided in graphical and tabular form, for the complete understanding of the complex phenomenon. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj). DOI 10.1002/htj.21048     

Heat transfer by radiation and natural convection through a vertical annulus embedded in porous medium

The effect of radiation and natural convection in a saturated porous medium embedded in a vertical annular cylinder has been investigated. Finite element method has been used to solve the governing equations. Influence of aspect ratio (A) and radius ratio (R) on Nusselt number is presented. The effect of radiation on heat transfer behavior is discussed. Results for two limiting cases of vertical cylinder and vertical plate embedded in saturated porous medium are presented. It is seen that average Nusselt number (N¯u) increases significantly with radiation parameter (Rd). N¯u attains maximum value at an aspect ratio of around one. N¯u always decreases with decrease in radius ratio.     

Non-Darcy mixed convection from a line source of heat in saturated porous medium

Local non-similarity solutions are reported for mixed convective heat transfer from a line source of heat in a saturated porous medium. Non-Darcy effects which include the flow inertial and thermal dispersion are considered in this study. The governing parameters are the Ergun number Er, the thermal dispersion coefficient C and mixed convection parameter & (=Ra/Pe). While the inertial effect tends to reduce the mixed convective flow, the thermal dispersion is to increase it. Both effects, however, have considerably thickened the thermal boundary layer.     

Inverse determination of a heat source from a solute concentration generation model in porous medium

The conjugate gradient method with adjoint equations is applied to the natural convection problem in a porous medium for the determination of an unknown heat source which is dependent on a solute concentration generation rate. The direct, sensitivity and adjoint equations are given for a Boussinesq fluid, over an arbitrary domain in two dimensions. Solutions by control volumes are presented for a square enclosure under known temperature and concentration boundary conditions, assuming a source term proportional to the vertical average generation rate of a solute concentration governed by a Monod model. Reasonably accurate solutions are obtained at least up to Ra=10⁵.     

Natural convection in a thin horizontal porous annulus

The possible modes of time-dependent natural convection in a horizontal annulus of finite length are considered. The annulus is filled with porous material and the annular thickness is assumed small in comparison with the mean radius. All boundaries are impermeable and adiabatic; heating is through a circumferentially distributed volumetric heat source. The governing equations reduce to a set of two non-linear ordinary differential equations. Steady non-linear oscillations exist for the special case of infinite Rayleigh number and symmetric heating about the vertical. For lower Rayleigh numbers, damped oscillations are obtained, the degree of damping increasing with the inclination of the line of symmetry and with decreasing Rayleigh number. Multiple stable steady states are obtained for small inclinations. Chaotic motions do not develop for non-inertial Darcy flows.     

Natural convection flow due to a heat source in a vertical channel

An analysis is presented of the laminar natural convection flow due to a localized heat source on the centerline of a long vertical channel or pipe whose walls are kept at a constant temperature. Stationary solutions are obtained for infinitely long and finite length channels, the asymptotic limit of infinite Rayleigh numbers is discussed, and an optimal height of the channel is found leading to maximum mass flux and minimum temperature for a given heat release rate.     

Effect of surface radiation on conjugate mixed convection in a vertical channel with a discrete heat source in each wall

The results of a numerical analysis of the problem of two-dimensional, steady, incompressible, conjugate, laminar, mixed convection with surface radiation in a vertical parallel-plate channel, provided with a flush-mounted, heat generating, discrete heat source in each wall, are presented here. Air, a radiatively non-participating medium, is used as the cooling agent. A computer code based on the finite volume method is written exclusively for solving the above problem. The effect of surface emissivity, aspect ratio, discrete heat source position and modified Richardson number on the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics is explored. Useful correlations are evolved for the maximum temperature of the left and the right channel walls, the mean friction coefficient and the forced convection component of the mean friction coefficient.     

Simulation of mixed convection in a vertical channel containing discrete porous-covering heat blocks

A numerical investigation is made of fully developed laminar mixed convection in a vertical channel with multiple porous-covered heated blocks on one channel wall. The Brinkman–Forchheimer-Extended Darcy model with the Boussinesq approximation is used to characterize the flowfield inside the porous region. Solution of the coupled governing equations for the fluid/porous/solid composite system is obtained by utilizing control volume method through the use of a stream function-vorticity approach. The dependence of streamlines, isotherms, and local and overall mean Nusselt numbers on the governing parameters, such as the Darcy number, Reynolds number, Grashof number, effective conductivity ratio, and geometric parameter, is documented in detail. The results show that the strength and extent of recirculating flow induced by porous-covering block make significant changes in the cooling of block heater, especially on block back faces.     

Effect of viscous dissipation and radiation on natural convection in a porous medium embedded within vertical annulus

The effect of viscous dissipation and thermal radiation on natural convection in a porous medium embedded within a vertical annular cylinder is investigated. The inner surface of the cylinder is maintained at an isothermal temperature $T_w$ and the outer surface is maintained at ambient temperature $T_{\infty }$. The fluid is assumed to obey the Darcy law. Finite element method is used to solve the partial differential equations governing the fluid flow and heat transfer behavior. The study is focused to investigate the combined effect of viscous dissipation and radiation. Results are presented for different values of the viscous dissipation parameter, radiation parameter, radius ratio, aspect ratio and Rayleigh number. It is observed that the viscous dissipation parameter reduces the average Nusselt number at hot surface. However, the average Nusselt number increases at the cold surface due to increased viscous dissipation parameter.