THE APPLICATION OF FLUX-CORRECTED TRANSPORT (FCT) TO HIGH RAYLEIGH NUMBER NATURAL CONVECTION IN A POROUS MEDIUM

Author(s):  
R. J. Gross ◽  
Melvin R. Baer ◽  
C. E. Hickox, Jr.
Author(s):  
Degan Gerard ◽  
Sokpoli Amavi Ernest ◽  
Akowanou Djidjoho Christian ◽  
Vodounnou Edmond Claude

This research was devoted to the analytical study of heat transfer by natural convection in a vertical cavity, confining a porous medium, and containing a heat source. The porous medium is hydrodynamically anisotropic in permeability whose axes of permeability tensor are obliquely oriented relative to the gravitational vector and saturated with a Newtonian fluid. The side walls are cooled to the temperature  and the horizontal walls are kept adiabatic. An analytical solution to this problem is found for low Rayleigh numbers by writing the solutions of mathematical model in polynomial form of degree n of the Rayleigh number. Poisson equations obtained are solved by the modified Galerkin method. The results are presented in term of streamlines and isotherms. The distribution of the streamlines and the temperature fields are greatly influenced by the permeability anisotropy parameters and the thermal conductivity. The heat transfer decreases considerably when the Rayleigh number increases.


2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramanathan Vishnampet ◽  
Arunn Narasimhan ◽  
V. Babu

Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is employed to investigate natural convection inside porous medium enclosures at high Rayleigh numbers. Volume averaged porous medium model is coupled with the lattice Boltzmann formulation of the momentum and energy equations for fluid flow. A parallel implementation of the single relaxation time LBM is used, which allows the porous medium modified Rayleigh number Ram to be as high as 108. Heat transfer results in the form of the enclosure averaged Nusselt number Nu are obtained for higher modified Rayleigh numbers 104≤Ram≤108. The Nu values are compared with values in the absence of the form drag term. The form drag due to the porous medium is found to influence Nu considerably. The effect of the form drag on Nu is studied by using a form drag modified Rayleigh number RaC (extended from Ram). Utilizing the results for Nu in the high Ram range, a correlation is proposed between Nu and RaC for Darcy numbers 10−6≤Da≤10−2, encompassing the non-Darcy flow regime.


1986 ◽  
Vol 108 (3) ◽  
pp. 660-666 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. Reda

Natural convection heat transfer from a constant-flux cylinder, immersed vertically through a stratified (two-layer) liquid-saturated porous medium, was investigated experimentally. Measured radial temperature profiles and heat transfer rates agreed well with numerical predictions based on the work of Hickox and Gartling. The 1:6 permeability-ratio interface existing between the two layers was found to effectively trap buoyancy-driven fluid motion within the high-permeability region, beneath the interface. Within this high-permeability region, Nusselt number versus Rayleigh number data were found to correlate with previously measured results, obtained for the same basic geometry, but with a fully permeable upper-surface hydrodynamic boundary condition. In both cases, the vertical and radial extent of the region under study were large compared to the radius of the heat source. Combined results indicate that, for a given Rayleigh number in the Darcy-flow regime, heat transfer rates from cylinders immersed vertically in uniform liquid-saturated porous media of large vertical and radial extent potentially approach limiting values. Variable-porosity effects which occur in unconsolidated porous media adjacent to solid boundaries were investigated numerically for cases where the particle-to-heater diameter ratio was small (≈ 10−2). Results showed variable-porosity effects to have a negligible influence on the thermal field adjacent to such boundaries under conditions of Darcy flow.


1983 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bejan ◽  
R. Anderson

This paper examines the interaction by natural convection between a fluid-saturated porous medium and a fluid reservoir separated by a vertical impermeable partition. The two fluid systems are maintained at different temperatures. The analysis is simplified by assuming Pr > > 1 in the fluid reservoir. It is shown analytically that the flow and temperature fields in the boundary layer regime consist of two fluid layers in counterflow. The interface temperature is shown to increase monotonically with altitude. The important dimensionless group which governs the fluid mechanics is B = (kRaK1/2) / (k′Ra1/4), where k, k′, RaK and Ra are, respectively, the porous medium conductivity, reservoir fluid conductivity, Darcy-modified Rayleigh number based on partition height, and the reservoir Rayleigh number based on partition height. The effect of parameter, B, on the flow, temperature, and heat transfer is documented in the range 0 < B < ∞.


1985 ◽  
Vol 107 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Kimura ◽  
A. Bejan

This is a study of the single-cell natural convection pattern that occurs in a “stably heated” corner in a fluid-saturated porous medium, i.e., in the corner formed between a cold horizontal wall and a hot vertical wall situated above the horizontal wall, or in the corner between a hot horizontal wall and a cold vertical wall situated below the horizontal wall. Numerical simulations show that this type of corner flow is present in porous media heated from the side when a stabilizing vertical temperature gradient is imposed in order to suppress the side-driven convection. Based on numerical solutions and on scale analysis, it is shown that the single cell corner flow becomes increasingly more localized as the Rayleigh number increases. At the same time, the mass flow rate engaged in natural circulation and the conduction-referenced Nusselt number increase. Numerical results for the flow and temperature fields and for the net heat transfer rate are reported in the Darcy-Rayleigh number range 10–6000.


1993 ◽  
Vol 254 ◽  
pp. 345-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Braester ◽  
Peter Vadasz

The results of an investigation on the effect of a weak heterogeneity of a porous medium on natural convection are presented. A medium heterogeneity is represented by spatial variations of the permeability and of the effective thermal conductivity. As a general rule the existence of horizontal thermal gradients in heterogeneous porous media provides a sufficient condition for the occurrence of natural convection. The implications of this condition are investigated for horizontal layers or rectangular domains subject to isothermal top and bottom boundary conditions. Results lead to a restriction on the classes of thermal conductivity functions which allow a motionless solution. Analytical solutions for rectangular weak heterogeneous porous domains heated from below, consistent with a basic motionless solution, are obtained by applying the weak nonlinear theory. The amplitude of the convection is obtained from an ordinary non-homogeneous differential equation, with a forcing term representative of the medium heterogeneity with respect to the effective thermal conductivity. A smooth transition through the critical Rayleigh number is obtained, thus removing a bifurcation which usually appears in homogeneous domains with perfect boundaries, at the critical value of the Rayleigh number. Within a certain range of slightly supercritical Rayleigh numbers, a symmetric thermal conductivity function is shown to reinforce a symmetrical flow while antisymmetric functions favour an antisymmetric flow. Except for the higher-order solutions, the weak heterogeneity with respect to permeability plays a relatively passive role and does not affect the solutions at the leading order. In contrast, the weak heterogeneity with respect to the effective thermal conductivity does have a significant effect on the resulting flow pattern.


1987 ◽  
Vol 184 ◽  
pp. 157-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. B. Ingham ◽  
I. Pop

The natural convection from a heated circular cylinder in an unbounded region of porous medium is investigated for the full range of Rayleigh numbers. At small Rayleigh numbers a qualitative solution is obtained and at large Rayleigh numbers the second-order boundary-layer solution is found that takes into account the first-order plume solution. In order to find the solution at finite Rayleigh numbers the two governing coupled, nonlinear, elliptic partial differential equations are expressed in finite-difference form using a specialized technique which is second-order accurate everywhere. Further, methods are devised which deal with the plume and infinity boundary conditions. Although numerical results are presented for Rayleigh numbers up to 400 solutions of the finite-difference equations can be obtained for higher values of the Rayleigh numbers but in these cases the mesh size used is too large to adequately deal with the developing boundary-layer on the cylinder and the plume.The numerical results show how the theories at both low and high Rayleigh numbers are approached. The plume solution which develops with increasing Rayleigh number agrees with that predicted by the theory presented using the boundary-layer approximation. No separation of the flow at the top of the cylinder is found and there are no indications that it will appear at higher values of the Rayleigh number. The results presented here give reasonable agreement with the existing experimental results for Rayleigh numbers of order unity. However as the Rayleigh number increases to order 102 there is a large discrepancy between the theoretical and experimental results and this is because at these higher values of the Rayleigh number the Darcy approximation has been violated in the experimental results. This indicates the severe limitations of some of the existing theories which use boundary-layer analyses and the Darcy approximation for flows in a porous medium. The application of Darcy's law requires that the size of the pores be much smaller than the scale of the bulk flow and inertial and thermal lengthscales.


1979 ◽  
Vol 92 (4) ◽  
pp. 751-766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland N. Horne

Previous analyses of natural convection in a porous medium have drawn seemingly contradictory conclusions as to whether the motion is two- or three-dimensional. This investigation uses numerical results to show the relationship between previous contending observations, and demonstrates that there exists more than one mode of convection for any particular physical configuration and Rayleigh number. In some cases, a particular flow situation may be stable even though it does not maximize the energy transfer across the system.The methods used are based on the efficient numerical solution of the governing equations, formulated with the definition of a vector potential. This approach is shown to be superior to formulating the equations in terms of pressure.For a cubic region the flow pattern at a particular value of the Rayleigh number is not unique and is determined by the initial conditions. In some cases there exist four alternatives, two- and three-dimensional, steady and unsteady.


Author(s):  
Bernardo Buonomo ◽  
Vincenzo Fardella ◽  
Oronzio Manca ◽  
Sergio Nardini ◽  
Salvatore Pragliola

Abstract In this work, a numerical investigation on two-dimensional steady state natural convection in a horizontal channel partially filled with a porous medium and heated at uniform heat flux from above is carried out. The lower plate is adiabatic. The porous medium is modeled using the Brinkman–Forchheimer-extended Darcy model and the local thermal equilibrium (LTE) hypothesis is assumed. The structure of the porous medium is homogenous and isotropic, the thermophysical properties of the air and the porous medium are temperature independent and the fluid flow is laminar and incompressible. The aluminum foam has 10, 20 and 40 pore per inches (PPI) and its porosity ranges from 0.90 and 0.95. Rayleigh number values are examined, from 6.0 × 104 and 1.2 × 107. Results are presented in terms of velocity and temperature fields, temperature and velocity profiles at different significant sections are shown, to obtain a description of the natural convection inside the open-ended cavity. Finally, Average Nusselt number values are evaluated. The horizontal open cavity partially filled with metal foam presents improved heat transfer behavior for higher Rayleigh numbers. The enhancement depends on the porosity and pore density. The average Nusselt number for the partially filled open cavity is the double of the configuration without the foam, clear configuration, for the highest considered Rayleigh number.


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