Abstract
This study investigates the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of immiscible two-phase flow (gas/liquid) and heat transfer through porous media. This research topic is interested among others in trickle bed reactors, the reservoirs production of oil, and the science of the earth. Characteristics of two-phase concurrent flow with heat transfer through a vertical, cylindrical, and homogeneous porous medium were investigated both numerically and experimentally. A generalized Darcy model for each phase is applied to derive the momentum equations of a two-phase mixture by appending some constitutive relations. Gravity force is considered through investigation. To promote the system energy equation, the energy equation of solid matrix for each phase are deemed. The test section is exposed to a constant wall temperature after filled with spherical beads. Numerical solution of the model is achieved by the finite volume method. The numerical procedure is generalized such that it can be reduced and applied to single phase flow model. The numerical results are acquired according to, air/water downward flow, spherical beads, ratio of particle diameter to pipe radius D=0.412, porosity φ=0.396, 0.01≤Re≤500, water to air volume ratio 0≤W/A≤∞, and saturation ratio 0≤S1≤1. To validate this model an experimental test rig is designed and constructed, and the corresponding numerical results are compared with its results. Also, the numerical results were compared with other available numerical results. The comparisons show good agreement and validate the numerical model. One of the important results reveals that the heat transfer is influenced by two main parameters; saturation ratios of the two fluids; S1 and S2, and the mixture Reynolds number Re. The thermal entry length is directly dependent on Re, S1, and the thermofluid properties of the fluids. A modified empirical correlation for the entrance length; Xe =0.1 Re.Pr.Rm is predicted, where Rm =Rm(S1, S2, ρ1, ρ2, c1, c2). The predicted correlation is verified by comparing with the supposed correlation of Poulikakos and Ranken (1987) and El-Kady (1997) for a single-phase flow; Xe/Pr=0.1 Re.
A Simplified Model of Low Reynolds Number, immiscible, Gas-Liquid Flow and Heat Transfer in Porous Media (Numerical Solution with Experimental Validation)
