Convective fluid flow and heat transfer in a vertical rectangular duct containing a horizontal porous medium and fluid layer

Umavathi, JC; Beg, OA

Abstract

Purpose-A numerical analysis is presented to investigate thermally and
hydrodynamically fully developed convection in a duct of rectangular cross-section
containing a porous medium and fluid layer.
Design/methodology/approach-The Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer flow model is
adopted. A finite difference method of second-order accuracy with the Southwell-OverRelaxation Method (SORM) is deployed to solve the non-dimensional momentum and
energy conservation equations under physically robust boundary conditions.
Findings-It is found that the presence of porous structure, and different immiscible fluids
exert a significant impact in controlling the flow. Graphical results for the influence of
the governing parameters i.e. Grashof number, Darcy number, porous media inertia
parameter, Brinkman number and ratios of viscosities, thermal expansion and thermal
conductivity parameters on the velocity and temperature fields are presented. The
volumetric flow rate, skin friction and rate of heat transfer at the left and right walls of
the duct are also provided in tabular form. The numerical solutions obtained are validated
with the published work and excellent agreement is attained.
Originality/value-To the authors best knowledge this work original in developing the
numerical code using FORTRAN to assess the fluid properties for immiscible fluids. The study is relevant to geothermal energy systems, thermal insulation systems, resin flow
modeling for liquid composite molding processes and hybrid solar collectors.

Citation

Umavathi, J., & Beg, O. (2021). Convective fluid flow and heat transfer in a vertical rectangular duct containing a horizontal porous medium and fluid layer. International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat and Fluid Flow, 31(4), 1320-1344. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-06-2020-0373

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 5, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Sep 23, 2020
• Publication Date: Mar 19, 2021
• Deposit Date: Aug 13, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 1, 2020
• Journal: International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow
• Print ISSN: 0961-5539
• Publisher: Emerald
• Volume: 31
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 1320-1344
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-06-2020-0373
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-06-2020-0373
• Related Public URLs: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/loi/hff