Local Thermal Non-Equilibrium Effect in Forced Convection of Non-Newtonian Fluids Through Porous Media

In this paper, we examine the effect of local thermal non-equilibrium LTNE condition on the non-Newtonian forced convection flow through channels filled with porous media. Four representative dimensionless parameters are used in formulating the problem. Numerical solutions obtained over broad ranges of these parameters are utilized to map conditions at which local thermal non-equilibrium condition is important, occurrence of LTNE is found to be driven by higher modified Peclet number, lower modified Biot number, lower fluid-to-solid thermal conductivity ratio, lower power-law fluid index, and lower microscopic and macroscopic frictional flow resistance coefficients. The proportional effect of each parameter as related to others is investigated.