Forced Convection Heat Transfer in Plate Channels Filled with Packed Beds or Sintered Porous Media

IntroductionFluid flow and convection heat transfer in porousmedia have received much attention for the pastfive decades due to many important applicationssuch as geothermal energy extraction,catalytic andchemical particle beds,petroleum processing,transp…

Forced Convection Heat Transfer in Plate Channels Filled with Packed Beds or Sintered Porous Media

In the present work, forced convection heat transfer in plate channels filled with metallic or non metallic particles (packed beds) or sintered porous media is simulated numerically using a thermal non equilibrium model. The numerical simulation results are compared with experimental data. The difference between convection heat transfer in packed beds and in sintered porous media and the effects of the boundary condition assumptions are investigated. The results show that the numerical simulation of convection heat transfer of air or water in packed beds using the local thermal non equilibrium model and the variable porosity model agrees well with the experimental data. The convection heat transfer coefficient in sintered porous media is much higher than that in packed beds. In the numerical simulation of convection heat transfer in sintered porous media, the boundary conditions on the wall should be that the particle temperatures are equal to the fluid temperature.