Rеvuе des Energies Renouvelables
Volume 11, Numéro 2, Pages 197-206
2008-06-30

The Enhanced Cooling Of Heated Blocks Mounted On The Wall Of A Plane Channel Filled With A Porous Medium

Authors : Benkafada F. . Talbi K. . Afrid M. .

Abstract

This is a two dimensional numerical simulation of the laminar air forced convection cooling of six blocks mounted on the lower wall of a plane horizontal channel filled (or not filled) with a porous medium. The blocks are equally spaced and heated by a uniform volumetric heat generation. The objective of the study is the determination of the enhanced cooling of the blocks when the channel is filled with a porous medium. The problem is modelled by the continuity, momenta and energy equations with their appropriate initial and boundary conditions. When the channel is filled with a porous medium, a Darcy-Forchheimer-Brinkman flow model is used to describe the flow field. The model equations are numerically solved by a second order accurate finite volume method. The results show that the flow field of the channel filled with a porous medium is very different from that of the channel without the porous matter. A major difference is the appearance of circulating vortices between the blocks when the porous matter is inexistent. This flow pattern difference favours a convective heat transfer enhancement of the flow in the channel filled with the porous matter. Moreover, the effective thermal conductivity of the considered porous medium is higher than that of the fluid. These two factors lead to a considerably better cooling of the blocks mounted in the channel filled with the porous matter. Thus, the use of porous media when possible is recommended because it enhances the cooling of heated blocks mounted in channels.

Keywords

Channel, Porous media, Cooling of heated blocks.