Lattice Boltzmann simulation of heat and fluid flow in 3D cylindrical heat exchanger with porous blocks

Inserting porous blocks into heat exchange pipe as a technology for heat transfer enhancement is widely used in engineering applications. In order to get the optimal heat transfer efficiency, this work is devoted to the numerical investigation of heat and fluid flow in cylindrical pipe with porous blocks using lattice Boltzmann method. The effects of several parameters, such as the width and height of the porous blocks, the distance between two adjoining porous blocks, Darcy number and porosity on fluid flow and temperature field are investigated. The numerical results indicate that the heat transfer effect caused by the height variation of porous block is more obvious compared with the other parameters.