Effects of a porous medium on forced convection of a reciprocating curved channel

Enhancement of heat transfer rates of a reciprocating curved channel partially installed by a porous medium is investigated numerically. The distribution of heat transfer rates on the heat surface of the reciprocating curved channel is rather non-uniform that easily causes a thermal damage to destroy the channel. A method of using the porous medium to enhance heat transfer rates of the channel is then developed to solve the thermal damage. The arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method is firstly modified for treating a moving boundary problem of the porous medium. Main parameters of Reynolds numbers, porosities, frequencies and amplitudes are examined. The results show that the enhancements of heat transfer rates of most porous medium situations are achieved. However, heat transfer rates of a few porous medium situations are unexpectedly inferior to those of without porous medium situations.